Crushes Between Friends
by Maximum Ridegirl
Summary: Sasuke and Sakura have been best friends since they can remember. Now with the last year of high school creeping up will that friendship bloom into something more? sasuxsaku, hinxnar, tenxneji, some sasuxino dedicated 2 Flirty Aquarius, my best friend!
1. Chapter 1

**REDID THIS CHAP!**

**A:N/ So, I didn't like the way I wrote the first chap, so I redid it, I hope you all like it! And please don't flame me if you liked the original better! Well I hope you'll enjoy this chap!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :(T.T.):**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 1 - The Start of Something New**

**SAKURA'S POV**

And they lived happily ever after.

Oh, I'm guessing that you've got no idea what I'm talking about. Here let me rewind it for you.

It all started senior year. I've got 7 friends, and out of the seven one is my best friend. If you're thinking it's a girl then your dead wrong. It's a guy. Want to guess which one? If you said Sasuke then you've just won a million dollars!

Just kidding (sorry)

So, my best friend is Uchiha Sasuke, the one and only. See out mother's were friends since preschool so when we were born, and as we got older, we spent almost every second with each ohter.

**(A:N/ I'm not describing the other characters, you'll find out who they are later.)**

Well my story begins two days before senior year started

Every year we have an 'over the night sleep over two days before school starts.

We take turns at who's house we go to, this year it was Sasuke's turn. Oh, yeah, and the other thing, we're also neighbors! Ironic isn't it?

So I usually go over there and help with cleaning and stuff, but this year was different. Don't worry you'll see why. So this is where my story actually started.

**END SAKURA'S POV**

RING RINGRING

Sakura hurriedly made her way through the mess, they call their house, and reached the phone before the answering machine picked up.

"Hello, Haruno residence, Sakura speaking.

"Do you always answer the phone like that?"

"No, only when you call."

"That's nice of you. I've got my own personalized greeting ." Sasuke said, sarcasm clearly in his voice.

"If it was personalized then I would have added 'Sasuke' into it." Sakura said rolling her eyes.

"Aww. And here I was all excited."

"Yeah sure. What do you want? Why didn't you just walk over here?"

"Well I'm too tired to walk to your house."

"Yeah, that's just a very long walk for you."

"Heh. And I just didn't feel like looking at your face."

"What's wrong with my face!?" Sakura said fuming.

"Oh, nothing. Except those giant zits covering it."

"I. Don't. Have. Any. Zits!"

"Whatever you say."

"Once again, I'm asking. What do you want!?"

"Oh, Sakura is that anyway to treat a friend? A **best** friend for that matter."

"Shut up."

"Fine, but then you'll never know why I called you."

"No."

"What?"

"No."

"So, you just called my to tell me something, you're not even going to tell me?"

**(A:N/ if it's confusing then reread it.)**

"Why don't you just come over here and find out?"

But-"

Then all Sakura heard was th beeping showing that he had hung up on her.

"Damn you Sasuke!"

Sakura got dressed, since she was still in her pj's, to walk over to Sasuke's to give him a piece of her mind.

Sakura stomped her way over to the Arrogant Jerk's house, that's her nickname for him. When She arrived she pounded on the door. When the opened sakura closed her eyes and immedidately started yelling

"Look here Uchiha Sasuke! I don't care if you're my best friend or not! You've got no freakin reason to hang up that freakin phone on me! Now tell me the thing you wanted to tell me!"

After Sakura's little 'blow' She had been standing there waiting for an respond, but it never came. So after 30 seconds she opened her eyes to reveal not Sasuke but Sasuke's older brother, Itachi.

"Yeah. I think that you might want to talk to Sasuke."

In the backround Sakura heard smirking so she looked behind Itachi and saw Sasuke laughing so hard you'd think he'd drop dead any moment.

Itachi saw that she was looking at something else so turned around, and Sasuke quickly regained his, usually, cool compossure.

Itachi looked back at Sakura, and walked off muttering about stupid teens, idiotic brothers, and lovebirds, also a few other things, there were so many.

"That was quite a speech Sakura." Sasuke said trying to suppress laughs.

Sakura flicked him on the forehead.

"Yeah, thanks for stopping me." Sakura said, glaring.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

"Pft. So, what did you want?!"

"Sakura, don't tell me that you forgot the annual before the school year sleep over?'

"The what?"

"Don't make me repeat it."

" Just say that last past."

"Before the school year sleep over." Sasuke said slowly so that Sakura could 'understand."

"OH! That sleep over! When is that again?"

"Oh, god. **Tonight!"**

"What! It's tonight! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I just did."

"Well I mean earlier."

" I thought you would remember **something we do every single year!"**

"Hmpf."

"So are you ready?"

"How do you expect me to be ready if I forgot about it?"

"Magic."

"You wish."

Sakura ran back to her house and packed some stuff. It took 10 to 15 minutes, when she got back Ino, and Naruto had arrived.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke whispered to Sakura as he opened the door.

"Sorry. Mom's fault."

"Sure, blame it on the mom's." Came a familiar voice behind Sasuke.

"Oh, hi Mrs. Uchiah!"

"Now, Sakura, you know I don't allow you to call me that. It's Mikoto for you and your family."

"Right. Mikoto.

"Well you guys have fun tonight, just not too much fun."

Mikoto gave the two a little wink, and Sakura blushed lightly, and Sasuke slapped himself on the forehead.

"Mikoto laughed.

"I'll see you later."

Just to annoy her son she ruffled his hair. Then she left for grocery shopping.

"Aa. Does Sasuke-kun miss his mommy?"

"Shut up Sakura."

"You don't have to be so cold about it."

"Forehead-girl!"

"Sakura-chan!"

Then next thing Sakura knew she was being squeezed by two people, both with blond hair.

"He... Ino-chan... Naruto...kuuuunnnnn!"

"Come on guys, you wouldn't want Sakura to die before school even started would you?"

They both quickly let go and Sakura fell to the floor holding her chest and panting.

"Thanks Sasuke-kun."

"Yeah, yeah."

Sasuke lent her his hand to help her up, and she took it. But when he pulled her up her, the rug sled from underneath her and she fell right into his chest. Sakura's arms were now around his neck and Sasuke instinctively put his hands around her waist.

Naruto had seen the scene, but Ino had went to answer the door, since the others had arrived. When Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Neji, and Shikamaru came in the two friends were still in that 'pose' and were blushing maddly.

"Teme, you dog!"

Sasuke and Sakura quickly pulled away from each other, both blushing extremely bad. And Sasuke hit Naruto across the head, due to his comment.

"Sheash, Uchiha, if you wanted some alone time wiht your **girl**friend, all you had to do was ask."

"Shut the hell up Hyuuga."

The two prodigies then entered their usual glaring 'contest.'

"Troublesome."

"Um... ok then, who's up for a game of, oh I for got the name of it."

"Um.. Trivia?" Tenten suggested.

"No. You've got teams of two, and you try to get you're partner to guess the thing written on the card you're holding."

"Oh! That game! What's it called again?"

Now everyone was thinking about the name of the game they can't remember.

"Oh, well," Sakura finally said," want to play it?"

"But you and Sasuke always win." Ino complained.

"So?"

"So. It get boring!"

"Well do you have any better ideas?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Spin the bottle."

"What?"

"You heard me. Spin the bottle."

"Yeah, let's play that!" Tenten said.

The room was filled with yeahs, sures, troublesomes, whatevers, and hns.

So that's how they ended up playing the game Sakura hates most, and Sasuke, and **only** Sasuke knew why.

Spin the bottle was when Sakura got... or should I say, **lost** her first kiss to... LEE. Although it may seem funny, poor Sakura, she was paralyzed for the next 3 days, cause, I mean, who wants to be kissed by a** anyone** that wears a spandex green suit? It was tough for Sasuke too though, because he was the one stuck helping her with her homework.

"So, who'll go first?" Sakura asked.

"Oooo! I want to!" INo said raising her hand.

So Ino spun the bottle having I land on Sasuke.

Since everyone knew that Ino still had a crch on him, they could just imagine what she thinking.

Sakura saw the look of pain in Sasuke's eyes and decide to mess with him a little bit.

"Oh, yeah, one thing all kisses must last 10 seconds.

Sasuke shot her I-don't-care-that-you're-my-best-friend-I'm-going-to-kill-you-tonight look. And Sakura just gave him a I'm-so-happy-we're-friends smile.

Ino was blushing and slowly crawled over to Sasuke and laid a kiss on his lips. Sakura decided to start counting.

"3-4-5-6-7-8-9-"

Everyone waited to hear the number ten, but it never came.

"Sakura, why did you stop counting?" Hinata asked.

"Because it'll make Sasuke mad. 10!"

Ino and Sasuke pulled away quickly. Well Sasuke pulled away quickly, and Ino did reluctantly.

Sakura was just sitting there smiling when a pillow hit her square in the face. I think you can imagine who threw it too. Sasuke.

"What the hell was that for?" Sakura asked throwing the pillow back.

"Because **you** stopped counting."Sasuke threw the pillow back at her.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" Naruto shouted.

So, thus, the pillow fight was started. Boys, verses girls. The girl's won of course, since they're naturally better.

"Man, I'm tired." Sakura said.

**(A:N/ It was around 9 when they all arrived.)**

"What time is it?" Sakura asked.

"Sasuke glanced at the clock in the room.

"Um...looks like...3:00."

"Wow! Time sure does fly." Hinata stated.

"Wait did you say 3?" Sakura asked looking at Sasuke.

"Nope. Now it's 3:01."

"And I've got work tomorrow!"

"Sakura, tomorrow is Sunday. It's not even open tomorrow." Sasuke said matter of factly.

"Oh, right."

"Well I say we get ready for bed, and sleep. I'm pooped." Ino said.

Everyone agreed and went to get dressed. Everyone me everyone in the living room wihtin 30 minutes.

Sasuke and Sakura were the first two done, so they decided to set up the sleeping area.

The order they slept in was like this from left to right. Neji, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten.

Within 10 minutes almost everyone was asleep except for Sasuke and Sakura.

"Hey, Sasuke, are you asleep?" Sakura asked whispering.

"Are you kidding? With the way Naruto sleeps, not even a deaf person could sleep."

Sakura made a small giggle.

"Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Are you... scared?"

"Scared of what?" Sasuke asked his eyes slightly adjusting to the dark.

"Of senior year."

"Well, not so much."

"I am."

"You'll be fine."

"Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"If something happens this year, you know something bad, promise you'll stay my friend."

"Something bad? Like what?"

"I don't know."

"Cross your heart hope to die?"

"Cross my heart hope to die."

"Good."

Sakura yawned and soon fell into a slightly heavy sleep. But light enough to feel a light kiss on her forehead, given by her best friend.

"Goodnight, my cherry blossom."

Ever since they were little Sasuke would consider Sakura **his** cherry blossom. Just to clear that up.

Sasuke's eyes had now fully adjusted to the dark and he could see Sakura's sleeping figure and face next to him.

_Look at her body, so perfectly curved. Those luscious lips. That silky hair. WAIT! What am I thinking! She's my best friend! I can't fall for her! I shouldn't fall for her! No! Bad thoughts!_

After scolding himself Sasuke fell asleep, still thinking about his pink-haired friend.

When Ino woke up that morning Sasuke's arm was wrapped around Sakura's waist, and the two were mere centimeters away from each other.

Even though iNo had a crush on Sasuke, she always thought that Sasuke and Sakura looked, and made the perfect couple.

Ino quietly stood up and woke up the others, signaling them to be quiet. When everyone was a wake she pointed out the scene between sasuke and sakura.

"Oh! I'm going to go get my camera." Tenten said hurrying out of the room and back. She took a couple of shots. Then put the camera away.

"Hey, ou know what we should do, ditch them here, leave a note to meet us at the wonderful ramen place..." Naruto would have gone on but was cut off by Neji.

"Or we could just ditch them here."

They all agreed to leave the two 'a lone' and they all went home.

About an hour after they left, Sakura was slowly waking up. She felt warmth and moved closer to it.

Sasuke felt shifting and he also slowly started to wake up.

When they both were able to see the close proximity between them they screamed and jumped away from each other.

"What. The. Hell?" Sakura said sort of gasping from shock.

"We never talk about this again." Sasuke said.

"Right." Sakura said agreeing fully with Sasuke.

Then Sakura looked around to see everyone gone. Both stood up. They saw a note that had been taped to the wall. It read:

_Went home. We've got a picture of you guys! Hahaha!_

"Great." Sakura said.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"They took a picture of us like that." Sakura said crumbling the paper.

"ARRRGGG!!"

"You know that they're going to haunt us for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah, I know. Are you hungry."

"Yes!"

" Is cereal ok?" Sasuke asked as they walked to his kitchen.

"Yeah. I love cereal."

So the two ate their cereal. Sakura helped Sasuke clean up the living room and put all the blankets and stuff away. I mean this is like her second home. So when they were done Sasuke walked Sakura back to her house.

"Hello kids!" Sakura's mom said. " Have a nice sleep over."

Sakura's mom asked smiling.

The first thing that pops into their minds was, 'she knows.'

"Um.. It was fun!" Sakura said smiling really brightly.

"Ok. Well that's good."

"Well I'll see you later Sakura. By Mrs. Haruno."

Sasuke left and when he got back to his house his mom was there to meet him.

"Good-morning Sasuke! Did you have fun last night?"

"Morning mom. It was fine."

Mikoto was giving him the same smile that Mrs. Haruno had given him, so he presumed that she also knew.

"Good. Well I'm going on a shopping spree with Mrs. Haruno, so you'll be here by your self for a while.

"Okay."

Mikoto left and left Sasuke was deciding what to do.

Sasuke and Sakura were right though. Tenten wasn't the only one that had taken a picture of the two.

**THIS STORY IS DEDICATED 2 MY BEST FRIEND **

_**GOLDENSUNSETNEJI**_

**A:N/ I know it's a lot longer than the first one, but I hope that you still like it! R&R! Like I said in that author's note, I'll put the real chapter two up tomorrow. I PROMISE!** **I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A:N/ See, I told you I'd update today. So I hope you like this chap, it's shorter than the first. But I'd rather have lots of short chaps, then few long chaps, I don't know why, I just do. So enjoy!! **

**disclaimer: I already wrote it 4 the 1****st**** chap, do I really have 2 write it again?**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 2 - Senior Year Here We Come!**

**FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL-**

"Sakura! Wake up! First day of school!"

Sakura stirred in her sleep.

**SAKURA'S DREAM-**

_Sakura looked at the person beside her. How content he looked._

_He felt someone looking at him, so he turned to his right to where he saw the woman standing next to him. They stared at each other intently. Then he put his hand under her chin, lifting it up. They both leaned in deepening the kiss. The unknown guy bit Sakura's lower lip asking for entrance. After thinking over it Sakura allowed him to. He explored the undiscovered area, swerving his tongue around inside her mouth._

_They finally broke the kiss, both gasping for air._

_Then-_

"SAKURA! WAKE UP!"

**END DREAM**

Sakura jolted up, since her mom sort of scared her to death.

"Mom! Don't do that! You scared the heck out of me!"

"Sorry. You slept threw your alarm and Sasuke is already waiting for you down stairs."

"CRAP!"

Sakura grabbed a clean uniform and took a 5 minute shower and quickly put on her uniform. It consisted of a black mini skirt, a black jacket with a white under shirt. They also had to wear red ties, and black shoes. She ran back to her room and grabbed her shoes, and put them quickly, jumping all around. She ran down the stairs so fast she almost tripped.

"Come on! Let's go!" Sakura said as she ran past Sasuke and out the door.

Sasuke just stood there dumb struck. Then Mrs. Haruno came down the stairs holding a school and a purse.

"Sasuke, can you give these to Sakura?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks. Have fun at school."

"Bye, Mrs. Haruno."

Sasuke walked out the door and found Sakura sleeping in the car. Everytime her head fell forward she'd jerk back up, but she stayed asleep.

Sasuke climbed in and slammed the door really hard to see if that would wake her up. It didn't. So sasuke honked the horn and She jolted straight up.

"I wasn't sleeping!"

Sasuke started smirking and threw her two bags at her.

"Here, you might need these."

"Oh, yeah."

Sasuke started pulling car out of the drive way and drove away to school.

"If we3're late, you know it's all your fault."

"My fault? How could it be my fault?"

"You're the one who slept in!"

"Yeah, well. Your face!"

"Is gorgeous, I already know." Sasuke said smiling.

But all that got him was a smack on the side of the head.

"What was that for?" Sasuke asked rubbing his head.

" For being an arrogant jerk.

"We both know that you don't mean that."

Yeah, and what if I do?"

"Then, I won't be you're friend anymore."

"But then, you'll being breaking a promise you made to me. Plus, you couldn't even **live** without me."

"What? You're the one that couldn't live without **me**."

"Who had his arm wrapped around me the other night."

"I thought we agreed that didn't happen?" Sasuke asked slightly blushing.

"I was lying." Sakura said seeing the blush.

They soon arrived at the school, everyone was waiting at their usual meeting spot in fromt of the school on the court yard.

"Hey teme. Did you have a good time at the sleep over?" Naruto said lifting his eyebrows up and down.

"You really need to know how to shut up." Sasuke said.

" Aww. Teme. I didn't know you were so sensitive when it came to that subject." Naruto said earning a hit across the head.

The group of eight walked into the school. Sakura, Sasuke, Tenten, and Naruto all had 1st period together.

Sakura had to go to her locker first though, so she told them to meet her there. After she dropped some things off she was walking back when she bumped into someone causing her to drop the stuff she was holding.

"I'm sorry." Sakura said as she bent down to pick up her things. She was about to pick up a book but anther hand grabbed it first. She looked up to be met by brown eyes. The gut had sort of longish brown hair. She thought he looked pretty hot.

"It's okay." He said.

Thanks." Sakura took the bok he was holding out for her and put it in her bag.

"Um...my name is Sai." He said sticking out his hand.

"Hi. Sakura." She said shaking his hand.

"You a senior?" He asked.

"Yep!" She said as they both stood up.

"So, what's your first class?" He asked.

"History." Sakura said gloomily.

"Me too." He responded.

"OH! Want to walk together?" She asked.

"Sure."

So the two started walking towards the history class.

"So, Sai, are you new here? Cause I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, just this summer."

"Where from?"

"Tokyo."

"Oh." they reached the class door, and walked in, the usual, students chatting amongst them selves. Sakura spotted her friends. She started walking and signaled for Sai to follow her. So he did.

**WITH THE OTHERS**

"Hey, teme, how's that guy with Sakura?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He could feel the heat boiling up inside of him. Why was he feeling this way? It's not like he owned Sakura. She was** just **a friend to him, right?

When Sakura got there she immediately introduced them.

"Guys this is Sai-kun. He's from Tokyo.

Sasuke could feel himself tense up, and clench his fists at the 'kun' she added to the end of his name.

"Sai, this is Tenten, Sasuke, and Naruto."

She said pointing to each of them.

"Hi." He said giving a short little wave.

"Hello!" Tenten said.

"Hey!" Naruto greeted.

"Hn." Sasuke more or less grunted.

The teacher, Ibiki, walked in. Everyone quickly got seats. Sai sat in front of Sakura, Sasuke on her left, and to his left sat Naruto. On Sakura's right Tenten sat.

"Okay class today we'll be..." and so the long and boring session began.;

The day went by slowly and by lunch time everyone had been tuckered out. Since Neji, INo, Shikamaru, and HInata hadn't met Sai ye, Sakura did the intros.

"Everyone, Sai."

"Sai, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, and Neji." She said pointing to each one.

"Hi." he said.

Everyone greeted him. The only one that didn't seem to talk to him much was Sasuke. And he started to wonder why.

When school was **finally **over Sasuke drove Sakura home as usual.

"So, Sasuke, what do you think of Sai?"

"Hn."

"You aren't jealous are you?" Sakura said sort of smirking.

"Now, where would you get that idea." Sasuke said trying to hide the sarcasm.

"You hardly talked with me or him at all today."

"Just didn't have anything to talk about."

Sasuke pulled up into Sakura's drive way.

"Okay. If you say so."

"I say so."

Sakura smirked and gave Sasuke a kiss on the cheek.

"Good-night Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke just smiled. And when he saw her go inside pulled out and went to his own house.

Sasuke went inside his room. Closed and locked his door.

What had he felt back there? When Sakura kissed him. It felt so, sweet. It left him wanting her. Wanting to lock her lips with his. Wanting to hold her. Carry her. Love her.

NO! I don't love her! She's my best friend! I can't love her! Can I?

Sasuke had trouble sleeping that night. He couldn't get her out of his head. He couldn't stop thinking about her in someone elses arms. More pacifically Sai's arms. Every time he did it felt as if a knife had plunged through a heart.

His heart.

**A:N/ Wow. I shocked myself. And I was even typing it! Go me! So I hope that you liked this chap. And if you hadn't figured it out yet I'm going to have SAIXSAKU couple in here. But the main one is SASXSAKU so don't worry. But be prepared for lemon on later on chaps. So R&R! I hope you liked it! I, personally loved it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A:N/ I was on vacation, and got back on Saturday, so that's why I didn't update. I've been writing this down on paper first, and I had a little bit of writer's block, but I'm over that! Yeah me! Anyways, ENJOY!**

**Disclaimer: do I **_**have **_**to repeat myself?**

**Crushes Between Friends **

**Chapter 3 - A Dream, A Confession, and a Note: Part 1**

**FRIDAY-**

"Hey guys!"Tenten yelled as she ran threw the halls when she saw her seven friends. (Sai wasn't with them.)

"Hey, Tenten-chan. What's up?" Sakura asked.

"You know how we always go on a mini vacation after we all got threw a week of school?"

"Um... yeah." Sakura said a little bit confused.

"Well I was thinking that we could go to Sasuke's lak house!"

"Oh! That the perfect idea!"

Everyone looked over a t Sasuke.

"What?" He asked.

Sakura smirked. "Is it okay that we go to your lake house for the vacation?"

"Hn."

"Please Sasuke-kun!" Sakura gave him a puppy dog pout she knew he couldn't resist.

"Fine." Sasuke said, reluctantly.

"Great!" Sakura and Tenten said simultaneously, while jumping in the air and gave a high 5.

"So, when should we leave?" Sakura asked.

"How bout today after school?" Tenten sugguested.

"Does that give you enough time to pack Ino?" Sakura asked.

"Are you kidding?" Ino said wide eyed, " I need at lest an hour."

"So an hour and fifteen minutes after school then?" Sakura suggested.

Everyone agreed. Sasuke and Sakura, being neighbors and all, would pick them up at 4:30.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg!

"Lunch break over! Naruto shouted.

The gang stood up and started walking to their assigned classes. Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata all had Science together.

"Hey, I've got to go get something from my locker, you guys go ahead." Sakura said walking away.

When Sakura go t to her locker she opened it, only to see a piece of pink paper fall out.

"What the heck?" Sakura bent down and picked it up. It read:

Your eyes are like the sun. so bright, captivating, and dangerous. Every time I look into them, I feel like my heart has stopped.

"Whoa." Sakura stood there for a second. She couldn't figure out the person by handwriting, because it had been typed. She stood there, just looking at the note, before she put it in her pocket and left for class.

"Tenten! Hinata!" Sakura said running to her friends at the back of the room.

"What's up Sakura-chan? You look so... excited?" Asked Hinata.

"So I went to my locker, you know, and this fell out when I opened it." Sakura pulled the note out of her back pocket and held it out.

Tenten instantly grabbed it out of her hands. She started reading it out loud, but only loud enough for Hinata and Sakura to hear.

"Sakura's got a secret admirer!" Tenten shouted, but no one heard her.

"Tenten! Be quiet!"

"How do you expect **me **to be quiet? We've got to tell the gang!"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Lately, Sasuke has been a little out of it. I don't want him to act any weirder than he already is."

"Then we just won't tell him." Tenten stated matter of factly.

"What about Naruto and the others?" Hinata asked.

"Then we won't tell Naruto."

"NO. Don't even tell Ino." Sakura said giving a them a stern look.

"Why not?" Asked Tenten.

"Tenten," Hinata started, " when was the last time **you** told a secret to Ino and **not** hear people blabbing about it the next day?"

"Um...never." Tenten said still not getting the point.

"So we tell her, then **everyone** will know!" Hinata said getting a little frustrated.

"Oohh! I get it now! But I still don't quite get why you won't tell your best friend?" Tenten said with Hinata nodding in agreement.

"Okay, I might tell him." Sakura said just as the teacher walked in.

" Okay class, that's enough chit chat. Let's begin our lesson." Kurenei said walking into the room tapping a ruler on her hand.

**AFTER SCHOOL-**

"See you guys at 4:30!" Sakura yelled as she got into the car with Sasuke."

"So, Sakura, what's this I hear about you having a secret admirer?"

"ARG! TENTEN!"

"What? Weren't you going to tell me?" Sasuke said in a mockingly tone.

"Yeah, but **I** wanted to tell you. I can't believe that Tenten couldn't keep her lousy mouth closed." Sakura grubbled.

"So? What did it say?"

"Well at least she kept **that** much to herself." Sakura once again grubbled.

"Just tell me what it said." Sasuke said not taking his eyes off the road..

Sakura once again took out the note and read it a loud.

"Wow. Looks like this **person** is very fond of you."

"Shay do u mean by **person**?" It's got too be a guy!"

"Where in that note did it say that it was a guy?"

"Where did it say it was from a girl?" Sakura said giving him a 'smarty pants' smile.

They sat at a traffic light each giving the other a deadly glare.

-click- the light turned to green.

Sasuke just sat there not paying attention to the light.

"It's green."

"Whatever." Sasuke said as he pressed the gas pedal and returned his eyes to the road.

"The rest of the drive was one of those awkward car rides where nobody's talking.

When they pulled up in her drive way they both got out. They both walked to Sakura's door and she let them in.

Since Sakura's mom was a medic nin she always got home late, and her dad was on a buisness trip with Sasuke's dad in America.

"Let's see." Sakura said as she walked into the kitchen with Sasuke following.

"Paper. Pencil. Paper. Pencil." Sakura said rummaging threw the kitchen.

"Aha! Here it is!" Sakura said pulling a pad of paper and a pencil out from a drawer.

Sakura started writing a note to her mom telling where she was going to be this weekend.

"There. All done." Sakura said taping the note next to the phone.

"So, I'll go pack and see you over at your house?"

"Or I could wait here, that way you wouldn't have to drag it over there."

"Good idea. I"ll be right back." Sakura ran up the stairs and quickly packed a bag.

Sasuke stood at the bottom of the stairs. He was daydreaming and didn't hear Sakura shout.

"Heads up!" She threw a bag down the stairs.

Sasuke turned but all too late. He put his hands in front of his face. Then, he felt a very powerful force hit a very **special** spot.

"Sasuke!" Sakura ran down the stairs.

Sasuke had fall on the floor in pain, also because a big and heavy bag of luggage had hit him.

"Are you alright?" Sakura said kneeling down beside him.

He just had one thing to say.

"Ouch." He was trying not to scream out in pain, so it was a little high pitched.

Sakura tried to suppress a laugh, but it didn't help.

"What are you laughing at?!" Sasuke said with a painful yet deadly glare.

Sakura closed her mouth, but kept on giggling.

"You." She said letting a laugh slip out.

Sasuke gave her a you-know-that**-did**-hurt-type glare. But then he realized that it actually didn't hurt that much.

"You know, it's not nice to laugh at people in pain." Sasuke said standing up, and putting a hand out for Sakura to help her up.

"Yeah, well, I can't help it. I just think it's so funny! Espeically when it's you." Sakura said excepting his hand.

"So is this it?" Sasuke asked pointing to the one bag of luggage.

"Are you kidding? That's just my shoes! There's still hair products, razor, tooth brush, tooth paste, hair brush, dryer, the list could go on and on!"

"Do you really need all that junk?"

:Um... no." Sakura said pausing.

"Then why pack it?"

"I don't know." Sakura said thinking about it a little.

"Just pack the basics."

"Oh, Sasuke those **are** the basics!"

"You're joking right?"

"Yeppers! This is actually the only bag." Sakura said trying to pick up the bag.

"Good. Here let my get that for you." Sasuke said grabbing her bag and lifting it up.

"God! I can see why you threw it down the stairs!"

Sasuke slowly made his way to her door, which she opened for him. He walked out the door, went to the trunk, opened it and threw the bag in, with much difficulty I might add.

'Look at her body. The perfect curves in the perfect places. Wait! What am I saying!? Bad me! Bad perverted me!'

Sasuke hadn't noticed Sakura staring at him like he was crazy, cause you know, he was too busy yelling at himself.

"Helloo! Anybody home?" Sakura asked waving a hand in front of Sasuke's face.

"W-what?" Sasuke said snapping out of daze.

"I said, are you ready to pick up the others?"

"Oh. Right. I just need to get my stuff then we'll go."

"Okies!" sakura said getting into Sasuke's car, with Sasuke following suit.

After they dropped by Sasuke's house the two friends went to pick up the rest of the gang. Everyone was up and ready to go. Well, everyone except for Ino.

"Ino! Do you really need all this stuff?!" Sakura asked as she tried to stuff Ino's stuff in the trunk, and also try to shut the door.

"Sakura. You should know me by now. Of course I need **all** this stuff." Ino said hopping into the car.

Whatever." Sakura said also getting into the car.

Then they were off. It was about an hour drive out there, so they arrived about 6:00. Everyone grabbed their luggage and chose rooms. Well actually they had to share rooms. Naruto and Sasuke shared, Shikamaru and Neji, Sakura and Tenten, then Hinata and Ino also shared. The girls were down one hall, while the guys down another.

Naruto was in charge of food. So the girl's cooked up some ramen.

Around 8 the group went out side to watch the sunset.

The cabin sat on a small cliff, so there was a fence on one side.

Sakura was leaning on the fence hair swaying with the wind.

Sasuke couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked with the sunset in the back round, accenting her hair perfectly. Sasuke hadn't noticed Tenten and Hinata standing next to him, and he unconsciously said something.

"Wow."

"Yeah, isn't it beautiful?" Hinata said, **thinking** that Sasuke was talking about the sunset.

"Yeah. She is."

Tenten and Hinata looked at each other, then at Sasuke. He just stood there. Then realization dawned on him of what he had just said, and that they were standing next to him. So he the first that came to his mind. Cover it up.

"I-I mean. The **sunset** is beautiful." Sasuke couldn't keep the blush from showing on this face. Hinata and Tenten started laughing a little.

"Sasuke?" Tenten said giving him a sly smile.

"What do** you** want?" Sasuke said trying to act like he didn't know what she was going to ask next.

"I never knew you liked Sakura like** that**." Hinata said narrowing her eyes a bit as he she started blushing more and sweating.

"I-I d-don't."

"Why are you stuttering?" Tenten asked also narrowing her eyes a bit.

"Cause I feel like it." He said trying **not** to stutter.

"Sasuke, come with us." Tenten said grabbing his arm and walking farther away from Sakura.

Even though Sakura was a good distance away that should couldn't hear, Tenten wanted to make sure that Sakura didn't walk over and hear part of their conversation.

"So, Sasuke, spill." Tenten said both her and Hinata putting their hands on her hips.

"I've got nothing **to** tell."Sasuke said crossing his arms over his six-pack of a chest.

"Sure. Spill."

"I said I **don't** have anything to say."

"Okay. Then you won't mind if I tell Sakura what you said." Tenten started to walk off but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait." Sasuke said in defeat.

Tenten turned back around with an evil grin on her face. "Spill." Hinata and Tenten said together.

Sasuke started to blush a deep shade of red. " I guess, I-I might, **might**, l-like S-S-Sa-Sak-Sakura." His whole face was red, not one spot was still his natural skin color. And his shirt is wet from his sweating of nervousness.

"HA! I knew it! I knew you liked her!"

She was about to say something more, but was stopped by a hand covering her mouth.

"You don't need to tell the whole world!" Sasuke said in a low whisper, taking his hand off her mouth.

"Yeah, but we've got to tell Sakura!" Tenten said, screeching it out.

"No!" Sasuke shouted in a low whisper.

"Or what?" Tenten said smirking, but then wished she hadn't.

" Or else." Sasuke said in an even lower, but deadly, whisper.

Tenten could've sworn she saw a flash of red go though Sasuke's eyes.

"O-okay." Tenten said squeaking, out of fear.

They had to stop their conversation since a pink-haired girl came over.

"Hey guys! What's cha talking about?"

"Nothing! What makes you think that we're talking about anything! It's absolutely nothing! Nada! Zip!" Tenten said quickly.

"Okay, I get it." Sakura said, looking at Tenten with a what's up-with-you-you've-gone-crazy type look. "Well I'm tired so I'm going to bed." Sakura said walking slowly away.

"Okay! You do that! Night!" Tenten said waving her hand.

Sakura just looked back at her, also waving her hand, then turned back around shaking her head at Tenten's odd behavior.

Sasuke watched her retreating body not being able to take his eyes off her.

"What's cha lookin' at?" Tenten said with a sly grin plastered on her face.

Sasuke just growled and turned around to also go to bed.

Once Sasuke was gone Tenten and Hinata started talking.

"We've got to tell the gang!"

"But what about Sasuke?" Hinata asked worried about that red flash she saw.

"He just said that we couldn't tell **Sakura**. He didn't say anything about the rest of the gang."

"Riiiggghhhht!" Hinata said understanding what Tenten was saying.

"So let's go!"

"Wait. Remember that note Sakura got today?"

"Yeah."

"What if... Sasuke is behind it?"

"(gasp) You're right! That would make perfect sense!"

"We'll have to ask him that tomorrow."

"Yeah. You know, we get to black mail Sasuke with this now." Hinata said an evil grin on her face.

**A:N/ So did you like it? I know the little note thingy was a little cheesy. Okay, a bit more than a little. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it! And for those of you who are also reading Accused, I'm sorry it's taking my so long to update it, it's just that I'm in**_** love**_ **of updating this story. But I promise I'll get it updated sometime this week! R&R!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A:N/ I didn't think that I would get this chap done so fast, I mean writing it down on paper. Anyways, I hope you like this chap! Oh, and after you're done I've got a poll for each of you to take.**

**Disclaimer: doesn't own naruto**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 4 - Dreams, Confessions, and a Note: Part 2**

Hinata and Tenten decided to wait till the next day to tell everyone, and to ask the question they had both been dying to ask. 'Did you give sakura that note?'

NEXT DAY: breakfast

Since Naruto was in charge of food, you know what that means. Ramen for breakfast, ramen for lunch, and ramen for dinner. So once again the girls cooked ramen.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." Sakura said picking up her dish and putting it in the sink.

"I'll go with you." Sasuke said also putting his dish in the sink.

"Okay!"

So the two walked off for their little walk thingy.

Tenten and Hinata waited to hear the door to close before they would tell anybody

-BANG-

Tenten and Hinata turned around from looking at the door.

"Okay, Hinata, let's tell them." Tenten said, while Hinata nodded in agreement.

"Tell us what?!" Naruto and Ino shouted.

"Okay, you guys can't tell Sakura anything, other wise Sasuke would kill you and us. But probably mostly us." Hinata said pointing a finger at her and Tenten.

"Okay, okay. We promise!" Naruto said.

Tenten took a deep breathe before saying, "Sasuke has a crush on Sakura!"

Everyone gasped, well except Hinata and Tenten cause, you know, they already knew.

"Are you serious?" Ino said.

"Mhm." Tenten and Hinata said nodding their heads.

"He told us last night." Hinata said.

"Troublesome."

"Go figure." Neji said.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well it's obvious he likes her. And even if he didn't, they would eventually fall for each other, being friends since who knows when."

"Yeah, that does make sense. I think." Naruto said.

"I can't believe that Sasuke likes Sakura!" Ino screamed, out of nowhere. She did think the two made a cute couple, but never actually believed that they might end up together. She'll have to keep that from happening. "So, can we tell Sasuke we know?" She asked.

Tenten and Hinata had to think about that one, cause they seriously didn't even know if he would kill them for telling the rest of the gang. But Tenten came up with an idea.

"Well, don't tell him straight out. Just kind of give him looks, whenever he's like looking at Sakura or something like that. Do. You. Understand. Naruto?"Tenten asked slowly.

"As a matter of fact... I ... don't."

Everyone sweat dropped.

"Well I'm not going to explain it again." Tenten said kind of annoyed.

"Just remember," HInata began, everyone looking at her, " don't mention any of this to Sakura."

Everyone nodded in understanding. Even Naruto! Oh, it's a happy day! Now everything was silent, everyone staring at everyone else.

"Sooo." Tenten said, " what's everyone going to do today."

"Cloud watching."

"Oh! I'll join you!" Ino said.

"Troublesome."

"I'm going to work on my training!" Tenten said raising a fist in the air.

"Nothing." Neji said keeping his hands over his well toned chest.

"I think I'll just spend the day with Hinata-chan!" Naruto said.

Hinata blushed a little tinge of red. Everyone knew that Hinata had a crush on Naruto, and they also knew that Naruto had one on her.

"O-okay N-naruto-kun." Hinata said back to her stuttering, which she only did when she was talking directly to Naruto, and twiddling her fingers.

So everyone going to where ever they were going.

HINATA AND NARUTO-

"So, Hinata-chan, what do you want to do?" Naruto said slightly blushing, but still keeping on his foxy grin.

"I-I d-don'y c-care. What w-would y-you l-like t-to do?" Hinata asked, still stuttering and twiddling.

Naruto thought a moment, thinking of the things Hinata and him could do, that **wasn't** perverted.

"Wannna hang down by the beach or something like that?"

"S-sure! S-sounds l-like f-fun." She said, face getting even redder then before.

So Hinata and naruto started their walk down to the beach.

INO AND SHIKAMARU-

Shikamaru slowly walked trying to find a good place to look at clouds.

"Oh Shika! This is going to be so much fun!"

'_troublesome woman. All she does is ruin the peace and quiet.'_

'_**And yet you still like her.**_

'_What? Who the hell are you?'_

"_**I'm your inner self. You know what you're real feelings inside are. So basically I'm... well actually I don't know how else to explain that more.'**_

'_Oh please. I've got an IQ of over 200, I don't have a crazy 'inner self' running around inside of me.'_

'_**Yeah, well you do, so deal with it!'**_

'_What ever. Just leave me alone , I don't need you so get lost.'_

'_**Fine, whatever you say, oh great one!'**_

"Hello! Shika! Did you hear me?' Ino said, annoyed that nobody, as usual, was listening to her.

"What?"

"I said, if we walk any further, we're going to walk off the edge."

"Oh, right, let's just stop here."

So Shika and Ino laid down on their backs and began their cloud gazing.

HINATA AND NARUTO-

"So, Hinata, what should we do first?"

" I think that we should run." Hinata said wide eyed.

"What? Why?"

Hinata stood up and started walking slowly away backwards.

"Um. Hinata? What's wrong?"

Naruto-kun! Look out!"

TENTEN-

Tenten heaved as she launched herself back up into the air, trying to practice on her target skills. As she started falling back down and un unusually strong wind hit her, causing her to move slightly, and also lose her concentration making her land on her feet wrong.

When Tenten hit the ground she heard a slight crack. Tenten screamed in pain, clutching her ankle.

"Ah! God!" Tenten tried to move her ankle but failed. All she got was even more pain.

"Great, I'm stuck out here, nobody knowing where I am and I've got a broken ankle! HELLO! ANYBODY OUT THERE!?"

Just then she heard a twig crack.

"Hello? Who's there? Show your self coward!"

Tenten said clutching her ankle harder in pain and fear.

Then emerging from the bushes came a huge, gigantic, brown... GRIZZLY BEAR!

Tenten screamed at the top of her lungs.

NEJI-

Neji quietly walked through the woods. For some weird reason though he couldn't get his mind off of the panda bunned girl.

'She always seemed so... dedicated. Why is that?'

Then he heard loud scream of pain.

'Who could that be?' Neji thought as he decided to make his way towards the sound.

As he got closer he heard the same person yell, "Hello! Anybody out there?!"

Neji continued quietly towards the yells. Then he heard a loud scream, this time not of pain, but of fright. So he started sprinting, dodging every rock, twig, and tree that got in his way.

When he got to a clearing he saw Tenten crawling backwards away from a huge, gigantic, brown... GRIZZLY BEAR!

Neji ran towards the bear kicking it down, but it soon got up taking a swipe back at him, leaving a few scratches on his back, since Neji turned around to keep it form getting his flawless face. Neji threw a punch at the bear knocking it back down. But once again got back up, but this time instead of fighting back it got up and ran away. Neji breathed heavily. He turned to Tenten who had her eyes closed.

"Tenten, you can open your eyes now." Neji said kneeling down beside her.

"O-oh." Tenten said blushing ever so slightly as she opened her eyes she hadn't realized she had closed.

"Why didn't you run?"

"Un.. I think I might have broken my ankle." Tenten said almost forgetting the pain she was in.

"Here, let me look at it."

"Fine. But you better only look at my ankle other wise you're a dead man."

"Tenten, I may be a guy, but I'm not** that **perverted.

Neji activated his Byaccugan and looked **only** at her ankle.

"Yep. It's definitely broken." Neji said as he stood up and started to try to pick Tenten up.

"Um... what do you think your doing?"

"Carrying you back to the lodge." He said as he picked her up bridal style.

"I don't think that's necessary for you to do that."

"Well I think that you probably can't walk very well now can you?"

"So!"

"It'll just make your ankle works."

Neji started walking toward the cabin, getting annoyed by Tenten's complaints about how she didn't need help and now she was completely capable of fending for her self.

"Just be grateful I heard you before that bear got you."

That got Tenten to shut up for a while. But we all now that couldn't have lasted very long.

INO AND SHIKA-

INo had fallen asleep. He head was now resting on Shika's shoulder. He was sitll a wake. But every few seconds he would glance at the sleeping girl beside him.

HINATA AND NARUTO-

Hinata was pointing at something behind Naruto. He dared to turn around only to be met by a cold wet splash of a tidal wave!

**( I know those are only in the ocean, but bare with me on this one, it's the best I could come up with!)**

Hinata couldn't help but laugh at the boy who was now soaking wet, running around like a lunatic, and yelling incoherent things. Hinata walked a little bit closer to Naruto.

When he realized that she was laughing at him he looked over at her. She tried to stop, but he just looked too funny.

"What are you laughing at?" Naruto asked.

"You're soaking!" Hinata said laughing hysterically.

"Well you can't talk." Naruto said a mischievous look in his eyes.

"What are you talking about? I'm not even w-" Just then Hinata felt a cold splash of water hit her face. It had come from none other than Naruto.

Oh, it was on. WATER FIGHT!

The tow started splashing each other with water. By the time they were don't both of them were soaked to the pulp. They were so tired they just fell down on the sand. Hianta's head resting on Naruto's shoulder, and Naruto having his head rest on her head. She couldn't help but smell him, and he couldn't help but smell her. And they stayed like that until they decided it was time to head back to the lodge and go straight to bed and sleep.

TENTEN AND NEJI-

**(just to clear something up, this is all happening at the same time if you haven't figured that out yet.)**

When they arrived at the lodge Neji carried Tenten into the kitchen, setting her down on the counter.

"Why did you put me on the counter?" Tenten asked.

"So that I won't have to bend so far down when I wrap that ankle."

Neji walked away toward his room to get some wrap he had brought. He soon got back and carefully remove Tenten's sock and shoe.

"Now, don't move a... bone." Neji stated smirking.

"Haha, very funny! You just think that- OW!"

"Sorry." Neji said as he stuck some pins in th cloth so that it wouldn't unravel.

"There. Your good to go."

"Yeah, I would if I could, but I can't. Go get me some alcohol and cotton balls."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Deciding that it was best that he go get what she requested so he did.

When he came back she had another order for him.

"Now, take off your shirt." Tenten said blushing a little more than usual.

"What?" Neji asked raising an eyebrow.

"J-just d-do it."

"Whatever you say." Neji said removing his shirt.

"Turnaround." She said still blushing, just a little bit more.

Neji followed her orders.

Tenten opened the bottle of alcohol and put some on a cotton ball. She dabbed it across the scratches on Neji's back, occasionally hearing 'oo's and ah's' of pain coming from Neji.

After she was done Neji mumbled a thanks and put his shirt back on. Then silence his. Tenten, forgetting about her broken ankle, jumped down from the counter and was about to tumble down to the ground when Neji caught her.

"Thanks."

"What were you thinking?"

"I forgot about my ankle."

"How could you forget?"

" I don't know. Just let me go to bed, I'm tired.

Neji once again picked Tenten up bridal style, and carried her to her room.

"I really need to get crutches." Tenten said to her self having Neji hear.

"Why? You've got me." Neji said smirking.

"That's exactly why I need them."

Neji laid Tenten down on her bed.

"Thanks." Tenten said.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Where do you think Sakura and Sasuke are?"

"Probably off talking, doing what best friends do, whatever they do."

Neji started walking away.

"Night Neji-kun. Thanks for today."

"Your welcome." Neji smiled, yes smiled, and walked out of the room turning off the light and closing the door.

'There's something about her. I just can't quite figure it out.'

INO AND SHIKA-

Deciding that it was getting late and they should start heading back, he attempted to wake Ino up from her slumber, but failed. So, he lifted her up bridal style and carried her towards the lodge.

When he got there he laid her down in her bed. Seeing Hinata already asleep he silently walked out, trying not to disturb anyone.

**A:N/ So I hope that you all liked my chapter! The next one will be about Sasuke's and Sakura's day. So yeah.**

**POLL! **

**Okay, so I can't quite decide if I should make a sequel or just make this an extra long story. If I do make it a sequel then this story will be written a little bit differently. If I don't I'll have to think about how I'm going to write it a little bit more. I had originally planned on making it a sequel, but now I'm not quite sure. This story will be long either way. But if I don't make a sequel, then it might take me longer to update, just because I haven't thought it through yet. So I'd like to know you're advice. Thanks! And don't forget to reveiw! **


	5. Chapter 5

**A:N/ Sorry it took so long to update. When did I last update?? Can't remember. Anywho, hope you like this chapter. Oh, and the little poll verdict thingy is... I'm not going to do the sequel, but I'll write as if I'm doing a sequel. Do you understand? Cause I know if I had read that I'd be all ' say wha?' So yeah, ENJOY!! **

**Disclaimer: Can't these freaks get it through their thick lop sided heads that I don't own naruto!! (not talking about reviewers. Rule #1: never diss the reviewers)**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 5- Sasuke and Sakura's Day**

Sasuke and Sakura left the lodge to begin their walk. They decided that they would just walk around the lake, which was probably a 10 mile hike. So it'll, more than likely, take them the whole day. After an hour or three of walking in utter silence, they finally started talking about... stuff.

"Soo." Sasuke started.

"So?" Sakura asked.

"How you liking the vacation so far?"

"It's fun. Especially since you're here." Sakura said, blushing ever so lightly, or darkly.

"Hm. Yeah, that's probably true." Sasuke said smirking.

"Yeah." Sakura answered, rolling her eyes at his cockiness.

They kept walking for another hour or so. Sakura was starting to get tired and rested her head on Saskue's shoulder. She locked her arm with his, and they walked like that.

"Hey Sasuke, let's take a break."

"Alright."

The two found a spot in the grass and sat down, over looking the lake.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Sakura asked.

The sun was slowly descending from the sky. Leaving pink, orange, and purple streakings in the sky.

"Yeah." Sasuke answered. Not thinking about the sunset, but at the girl that he was falling for beside him. Yep. He was lost in love.

The two looked at each other. Then, it was so weird, they started leaning forward. It was like a string was pulling them together. There was no stopping. There was no breaking that string.

Soon their lips passionately me. They both deepened into the kiss. Both not knowing why, or even _how_.

'Why am I doing this? He's my best friend!'

'What are we doing? We're friends! **Just** friends! I think.'

They were both frightened. But something was just keeping them together. And they liked it. They couldn't help themselves. Sakura wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Both pulled their bodies closer to the other.

It started to become over caste. Thunder. Lightning. Down pour. In a matter of seconds the rain came crashing down on the two. They instantly pulled apart and looked up at the sky. Sasuke kept one arm behind Sakura's waist as they ran to find shelter.

By the time they did they were so wet that they didn't have a single dry spot on them. They did eventually find a little cave that they could both fit in. Very tightly though.

Sasuke had one arm behind Sakura's neck, and one arm resting on top of her right side waist. She was holding tightly onto Sasuke's neck. Tightening ever time she'd hear a crack of thunder. She didn't know why, but she felt so comfortable in his arms. It was like this was her home. Right here in the safety of his arms. It felt so right to be there with him, holding her in his arms. And for some weird reason, she never wanted this moment to end. His scent of cologne. The warmth of his body against her's. The safety she felt being in his arms. The love.

'What's going on? We've been **just** friends for so long. We can't be or fall in love it would be to weird. It just cant' happen. But I feel so safe being in his arms. Knowing that whenever I'm with him, I'll always be safe. Always.'

And with that Sakura started drifting off into a deep slumber.

'Heh. She's so cute when she sleeps.'

Sakura moved closer to Sasuke, and he tightened his grip around her. As if saying that she never should or could leave his side. He laid his head on top of her, and then they were both asleep.

**A:N/ I know that this chap is short, sorry about that. Well I hoped you like it! R&R!! I don't get the read part of R&R. Like anyone would just skim to the bottom of a story and review it without reading it?! Or would they? Anyways, review! Since you probably already read this chap. I'm just going to drop that now. !**

**DEDICATION: I would like 2 dedicate this chap to the rain. Because if it hadn't of rained, you reviewers wouldn't be reading this right now. And to my new hired beta reader/ one of my best friends kat. Thank-you the both of you!!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A:N/ Okay, schools starting on Wednesday, so that means it'll take me longer to update all of my stories. So enjoy the short updates while you can. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: don't own naruto. Get it, got it, good.**

**Crushes Between Friends -**

**Chapter 6 - Back to Reality**

SAKURA'S DREAM------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura looked at the guy beside her. His raven hair. His onyx eyes.

The man beside her was Uchiha, Sasuke.

"Sakura." He said turning to look her straight in the eye.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

The tow were standing bare feet in the sand the only sounds coming from the thrashing of the waves in the thrashing of the waves in the ocean.

"I love you too." Sakura said, a smile spreading across her face.

They both leaned in, their lips meeting.

Sasuke put one arm around her, while the other cupped the side of her face. Sakura had both arms around his neck. He picked her up and spun her around and around.

END DREAM---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura slowly opened her eyes. It was now morning.

"Good morning." sasuke said looking down on her.

"Morning." She said half yawning.

"Hey, about last night, with the kiss and all," Sakura started.

"Yeah. I think it's best we both forget about it." Sasuke finished for her.

"R-right." She said, even thought that's not exactly what she was getting at.

She didn't know why, but she was disappointed. She didn't want to forget it. But she didn't want to remember it either. Confusing, I know. So she dropped it, for now.

'Stupid kiss. Why did that ever happen?' Sakura asked her self.

It was the same situation with Sasuke. Only he thought that she was going to say exactly what he finished for her. Wrong!

The two walked silently to the cabin. They had actually hiked more than they thought. They only had a mile and a half left. They were starving! No dinner. No breakfast. Sakura sensed a weird presence.

'Why is it that whenever I'm a lone with Sasuke it feels like we're not the only ones?'

"Hey Sasuke, do you ever get the feeling someone's watching you?"

"Yeah. Everyday in class."

Sakura laughed.

"Not exactly what I meant. I mean when you're a lone with someone. Or even by your self."

"No, not really." He started before his thoughts interrupted him.

'Actually there has been a strange presence whenever I'm only with Sakura.'

"But then again, someone is **always** watching."

"Right."

TENTEN-

Tenten woke up that morning before every one else, remembering that she had no dinner last night. Starving? I think so! She slowly and sleepily walked to the kitchen occasionly bumping into expensive art work, or your common wall, and maybe a few doors.

'What to make , what to make. Right. Naruto was in charge of food. Ramen it is.'

Tenten started whipping up a batch of ramen.

'Wait a minute. Why didn't I see Sakura? She didn't have a little outer with Sasuke did she?'

As if on cue Sasuke and Sakura walked tight into the kitchen.

"Hey Tenten. How did your training go?"

"Sprained my ankle."

**(A:N/ I know I said she broke it, but I wanted to change that. Now use those wonderful imaginations we all know we all have and imagine that it was sprained in the first place.)**

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Almost got slaughtered by a bear too. But luckily, Neji heard my screams. Hey Sasuke can I talk to you for a second in the living room? Sakura you can stay here."

"O...k...?..."

Tenten grabbed Sasuke's arm and pulled , more like yanked, him into the living room.

"What?!"

"I meant to ask you this yesterday, but you went on a little date..."

"It wasn't a date."

"Really? Any who, did you write Sakura that note from her locker?"

"N-no." He answered blushing.

"Omg! You did!"

"..."

"Come on, admitit! Your head over heals for her!"

"Shut up."

"I will when you admit it."

"Arg! Fine! I'm falling for her."

"Have you kissed her yet?!"

"..."

"You have!"

"No! It was an accident!"

"Fine. Whatever."

"Don't you dare tell anybody about this!"

"What, the kissing or the liking?"

"Both!"

Sasuke walked out.

"Oops." Was all Tenten had to say.

When she returned to the kitchen she saw everyone already there and eating. She sat down and joined them like Sasuke and her had never talked.

"So, teme, did you stay out **all **night with Sakura-chan?"

"...we got caught in some rain."

"Oh yeah, there was a ton of that last night!" Naruto commented.

They finished their breakfast, packed up and headed home. Tenten had three way and called Hinata and Sakura.

"So, Sakura, I heard bout the kiss." Tenten said.

"What! You to kissed?!" Hinata screamed. Neji over heard her. And assumed that she was talking about Sasuke and Sakura.

"How'd you find out bout that!?" Sakura yelled.

" The grim reaper, who do you think?!" Tenten said.

"Why did he tell you?"

"I made him."

"Wait, I'm confused. Did you actually talk to **the** grim reaper?" Hinata asked Tenten.

"Yes Hinata, I talked to an imaginary character." Tenten said.

"Well sorry! I don't get sarcasm. So did you and Sasuke really kiss?" Hinata asked. Neji decided to listen in on the other line.

"Well yes, but..."

Omfg! Did you like it?" Hinata asked.

"It was an accident! Plus, we're only friends."

"You still didn't answer Hinata's question. Did you like it?"

"Well, I don't know."

"Omfg! You did!" Tenten screamed.

"Guys, we agreed that it never happened. Look, I've got homework to do. I'll talk to you later."

Sakura hung up the phone and so did the other people.

'So, Uchiha kissed Haruno?' Neji thought. 'Blackmail.'

**A:N/ So, did you like it? Well I hope you all did, so R&R! I've got the next chapter already written down, so I just have to type it, so get this one read and get ready for the next one!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A:N/ I hope you all liked that last chapter! From now on, the story is completely sakuxsai. No I'm just kidding! I hate that couple, just as much as I hate mushrooms, man I hate those things. Anyways, ENJOY!!**

**Crushes Between Friends-**

**Chapter 7 - Fighting and Dating**

—WEDNESDAY—

"Okay class, we will be starting a new assignment today! It'll be due on Friday." Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai were all in history together. They had Kakashi.

"I will assign three people to a team. I will also assign you the subject you will be studying."

Groans could be heard throughout all the classroom.

"Team 1, Akinay, Chon, and Tiro." He went on, and eventually got to team 7. "And lastly, team 7. Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai. You'll be studying the ANBU. I'll let everyone get a head start."

Kakashi shut up, and started reading his porno book.

"Okay, so." Sakura started. Things were still pretty awkward between her and Sasuke. They didn't talk the whole ride to school.

"Why don't we meet up at your house Sai?" Sakura asked.

"No. We still have a lot of junk around. How about your's Sakura?"

"I don't-"

"We can meet at my place." Sasuke said.

'There's no way that perv is entering Sakura's house.'

"Okay. Fine by me!" Sai said. "Where do you live?"

"703 W. Crawford Ave." Sasuke said right when the bell rang.

Everyone grabbed their stuff. Sasuke walked out of the room and waited for Sakura to come out.

'When will I tell her?'

Sakura was about to leave when someone grabbed her arm.

"Sai?" She asked.

"Hey, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing Friday?"

"Um... n-nothing.

"Good. I was thinking that we could catch a movie or something."

"Yeah. S-sure. What movie?"

"I don't know. You can choose."

"Okay. I'll think about it." She said, smiling and walking out of the room.

Sai smiled brightly and did a small little victory dance.

Sasuke was still waiting for Sakura when she came out.

"What took so long?" He asked.

"Oh. Um... S-sai asked me out on a date for Friday." she said blushing and smiling while biting her lip.

"Oh. T-that's good." He said. Though he hated the idea of them even being in the same room.

"Yeah. I'm totally psyched!" She squealed. Sasuke just gave a small smile.

'Arg! A date? Why would she want to go on a date with him?'

For the rest of the day Sakura couldn't stop thinking about Friday. Sasuke was busy coming up with ideas to kill Sai. All of them not torturing, or cruel enough.

AFTER SCHOOL: SASUKE'S HOUSE-

"Okay, so, what should we look up first?"Sai asked.

"Um... probably where the ANBU came from." Sakura replied.

"Good idea. Do you know how sexy you are when you're smart?" Sai said giving her a charming smile.

"Um..." Sakura blushed maddly. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Can we just get started on this project?"

"Yeah." Sakura said, going over to sit next to Sasuke. Sai sat down next to her.

Sasuke went to and so started their research. Sakura took notes, Sasuke looked it up on the net, and Sai, well he just watched Sakura.

"Are you even going to do any work?" Sasuke asked.

"I am."

"Yeah? Like what?" Sasuke retorted.

"I'm taking mental notes for my date on Friday."

"Pft. Whatever."

They had been working for an hour now, and had most of the information.

"I think that's good enough for today." Sakura said.

"Yeah." Sasuke agreed, turning off his lap top.

"Hey, Sakura, do you need a ride home?"

"No. I live right next door."

"O-oh. Well at least now I know where to pick you up on Friday."

"Yep!" Sakura said smiling and giggling.

"Well, I'll be going now." Sai said. He gave Sakura a light kiss on the cheek and left the house.

Sakura was blushing maddly.

"Are you seriously going out with him?" Sasuke asked.

"What is it to you?" sakura asked.

"You're my friend, and this guy is bad news."

"What? You're crazy." Sakura said, walking out of the room. Sasuke got up and followed her.

"He's playing you. All you're going to get from this guy is a broken heart."

"He wouldn't do that. Besides, who are you to control my life!?" Sakura was starting to get mad now.

"He's using you. That's all I'm saying."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Sakura started crying.

"Well, if you didn't want me to go out with him, then maybe you should have asked first!" sakura opened the front door and before she walked out she had one last thing to say to him.

"Oh, by the way, don't bother taking me to school tomorrow." She walked out without shutting the door.

After she left Sasuke slammed the door, went up to his room, slammed his door and started pounding his wall.

That night, Sakura cried herself to sleep.

**A:N/ OMG! They had a fight!! I didn't know that was going to happen, okay so maybe I did. Did you like it? Well I hope you did. Well it's late here, so until tomorrow!**

**R&R!!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A:N/ Ello fellow reviewers! This is the last short update, since school is starting tomorrow, so I hope you like it!!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 8 - Silence**

The next day at school Sasuke and Sakura didn't talk. They didn't make eye contact. Heck, they made sure they didn't even see each other in the hallways. Finally Tenten, HInata, and Ino got fed up with it and asked Sakura what was going on.

"What's up with you and Sasuke today?" Hinata aske.

"What? Who are we talking about?" Sakura stated blandly.

"Sasuke. Your best friend." Tenten said.

"No. Best friends don't make a big deal about who their going out with!" Sakura shouted.

"Oh. I see what this is about." Ino said.

"It's not about anything." Sakura said, starting to walk away from them, but they kept following her.

"Did Sasuke talk to you about Sai?" Ino asked.

"No. I mean, why couldn't he just leave it to himself? Why did he have to go out and blurt something out? I was happy! But, no! He just **had** to ruin that!"

"Sakura. What exactly happened?" Hinata asked.

:well you know how I'm going on a date with Sai on Friday?"

"Yeah." They all said.

"Well, after we got done researching yesterday, he told me he didn't trust Sai. Said that he was playing me. Or something like that. If he didn't want me to go out on a date with him, why didn't he just ask first! Or at least said something!" She said, tears now swelling up in her eyes.

"Oohhh. I het it now." Ino said.

"Get what? What is there to get? He's being a jerk." Sakura said.

"You wanted to go on a date with Sasuke!" Tenten shouted, luckily no one heard her.

"No! It's not that! I don't think of him like that. I just don't get why he said those things. Look. I've got to go to my locker. I'll see you guys in class." Sakura said walking away.

SASUKE AND THE GUYS-

"So, Teme. What's going on with Sakura-chan and you? You haven't spoken all day. You didin't even come to school together."

"None of your business." Was all Sasuke said before walking off in some random, or not so random, direction.

SAKURA-

Sakura got to her locker and opened it.

'No note this time.'

Sakura hadn't heard from her secret admirer for awhle now. She was started wondering if she had dreamt it all.

'Wait a sec. What's this?'

Sakura picked up a CD. There was a little note taped to it, reading:

_track 5_

Just then the bell rang. Sakura grabbed the Cd and stuffed it into her bag.

'So what? Am I to listen to track # 5?'

**_'Well DUH!'_**

'You!'

_**'Yes, ME!'**_

'Fine, if your so smart how does he know that I won't listen to any of the other songs?'

_**'Maybe he'll give you a new Cd everyday.'**_

'Why would he do that?'

_**'How am I suppose to know!? I'm not giving them to you!'**_

Sakura took the empty seat between Hinata and Tenten.

"Anything new from a certain admirer?" Tenten asked.

"Just this." Sakura said pulling out the Cd.

"A Cd?" "Yeah. There was a note too."

"What did it say?"

"Track 5."

"That's all?

"Yeah."

"So, you've got to listen to track 5 today?"

"I guess."

"What about the other tracks?"

"I guess he'll give me a different Cd everyday, you know, instead of a note."

"That'll run a budget. So you **can** listen to the other tracks?"

"I guess. Don't know."

"Ok class! Settle down!" Their science teacher said walking in. She had crimson eyes and dark wavy brunette hair. She was Kurenei Sensei.

The class gradually quieted down.

After class Sakura searched for Sai. She finally found him talking to one of his friends.

"Het Sai." she said. He turned around.

"Oh, hey Sak! Hey, are we working on that project today?"

"I don't know. You have your next class with him right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Good. Could you ask? Oh, and if we are, I'm going to need a ride." She said.

"Sure! I'll ask."

"Thanks See ya later." Sakura then spotted Sasuke and tiptoed up and gave Sai a light kiss on his lips.

Tenten, Hinata, and INo had witnessed the whole scene. They gawked. Sasuke, of course, saw it and was fuming. Sakura walked off satisfied, and since most of the school witnessed this, Sai and Sakura were, **officially**, dating.

AFTER SCHOOL: SASUKE'S-

"What should we look up today?" Sai asked. He was currently sitting between Sasuke and Sakura. Kinda awkward for him.

"I don't know. Sasuke? Got any ideas? Cause we all know you have opinions that you just c**an't** keep to yourself."

"No. Why don't you ask your** boyfriend**?"

"You know what? I might just do that. Sai? What do you think?"

"Um..I-"

"Oh, you know what!? I've just got a great idea!"

That's a first." Sasuke said. Both started to glare at each other.

"Shut up. We should look up hot to be a good friend, since Sasuke hasn't quite grasped that yet!" Sasuke stood up, and Sakura did the same. They started yelling at each other, about god, knows what. Sai was very uncomfortable, so he tried to stop them.

"Excuse me." he said quietly. They didn't hear him.

"Hello?" The kept screaming.

"EXCUSE ME!"

"WHAT!!" Both screamed at him.

Sai cringed.

"Look, I don't know what this is about, and from the looks of it I don't want to. So I'm going to leave and let you to sort this... thing, out. And I'll see you guys tomorrow." He said then he was gone. Out the door I mean.

When he left they went back to glaring.

"Well?" Sakurasaid.

"Well what?"

"I'm waiting."

"I'm waiting."

For what?" He asked.

"Your apology."

"I don't have anything to apologize for."

"The things you said yesterday." She said, pestered.

"I meant the, and I'm not taking them back."

"Well it's nice to know I have such a supportive friend!"

"I'd say so!"

"Yeah! Well I'm leaving now, and I never want to speak, see, or hear you again!" Sakura stormed out of the room.

"Do whatever you want! It's not like I care!" Then he heard the door slam. And it slammed hard, the whole house must have shook. Sasuke punched the nearest wall he could find.

When Sakura got home she ignored all of her mother's questions. She got to her room and Started talking to her self.

"I mean, the nerve of that guy!" Sakura threw her bag down, and saw the Cd slide out. Then, all her thoughts about the fight her and Sasuke had had were gone. All that was in her mind right now was the secret admirer.

'Who could it be? Not Sai. We're already dating.' Sakura picked up the Ck and put it in her radio/Cd player. Then turned it to track five.

**Nobody But Me By Blake Shelton**

_Verse 1:  
__Don't waste your time looking over your shoulder  
Those loves from the past ain't getting no closer  
When I look in my future you're all I can see (so honey)  
Don't go loving on nobody but me. _

_Chorus:  
__Nobody but me gonna love you like you ought to be loved on  
Nobody but me gonna cry if you up and leave  
You can do what you want to,  
But I'm asking pretty please (Honey) Don't go loving on nobody but me._

_Verse 2:  
__I took my time to tell you how I feel.  
Just because I took so long doesn't mean that it isn't real  
I ain't got no diamonds, but I'm down on my knees (so honey)  
Don't go lovin on nobody but me_

_Chorus:  
__Nobody but me gonna love you like you ought to be loved on  
Nobody but me gonna cry if you up and leave  
You can do what you want to,  
But I'm asking pretty please (Honey) Don't go loving on nobody but me._

_Chorus:  
__Nobody but me gonna love you like you ought to be loved on  
Nobody but me gonna cry if you up and leave  
You can do what you want to,  
but I'm asking pretty please (Honey) don't go loving on nobody but me._

_Don't go lovin on nobody but, me..._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the song finished she was dumbstruck.

'So, this person? Do they know I'm going with Sai? Or maybe it really could be Sai?'

Sakura fell asleep that night, but she wasn't thinking about her admirer, but the fight she and Sasuke had had. Slight tears running down her face. She kept replaying that one song though.

**A:N/ Yeah. Sorry if you don't like country music, but I love, and I'm gonna use it. I mean it's not all going to be country, just most of it. So I hoped liked this chapter, and I'll see you all when I update next, which I will remind you, that it might take longer depending if we get loaded with homework on the first three days of school.**

**I HATE SAIXSAKURA!!!**

**just had to make that clear. **

**R&R!!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A:N/ -sigh- It's good to be back. School is tiresome. Although my first day was pretty funny. If you wish to hear it, mention it in your review and I'll send you a PM telling you about it. If it wasn't so long I'd mention it in my author's note, but it is. So, I hope you like this next chapter! AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!!**

**Disclaimer: haven't done this in a while. What's line that line I'm supposed to say again? Oh, well. It'll come to me eventually. I think.**

**Crushes Between Friends-**

**Chapter 9 - The Date**

By the next day after school all thoughts of Sasuke were out of Sakura's mind. All she could think about was her date with Sai. When Sakura got home she took a quick shower and started to get ready for her date.

She was wearing a quarter zip up read and pink striped sweater that looked like it was inside out, washed out blue jeans with black flats. She had her hair up in a high pony tail with a few bangs hanging down, she had brown eye shadow and soft pink lip gloss on.

20 minutes after she had finished getting ready the doorbell finally rang.

"I'll get it!" Sakura's mom called.

"Why hello. You must be Sai."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Well. Come, come in!" She said gesturing in to the house.

"Sakura will be down in a little bit." she said, then walked away.

Within minutes Sakura came down the stairs.

"Hey Said-kun."

"Hey Sak! Wow. You look.."

"Yeah?" She said slight blush growing on her face.

"Amazing." He said smiling.

"Thanks." She said biting he lip and twisting her left foot.

"Um.. Shall we go?" Sai asked gesturing to the door.

"Sure" she said, still blushing.

Sai and Sakura walked towards her front door, him opening it for her. She smiled and walked out calling 'good-bye' to her mom.

"Be back by 11!" She called back to her teenage daughter.

When they reached Sai's casr he kindly opened the door, again, for her. Sai closed it, then walked around to the driver's seat.

"So, where are we going?" Sakura asked.

"Olive Garden."

"Really!?"

"Really, really." He said, giving her another of his deadly charming smiles. **(Not like Sasuke's though: S-S)**

"I love that place!"

"I know." Sakura face seemed to light up with joy.

'_He knows so much about me already. How? I don't know. Don't care.'_

They arrived at the restaurant and were immediately seated next to a window. A waitress came over to take their orders.

"I would like raspberry iced tea please." Sakura said.

"I'll just have a watter with a lemon thanks." Sai said.

The waitress nodded and walked off.

"So Sak. Tell me more about yourself."

"Well that's a cheesy line."

"Thanks, I try my best. But really, it's not like I'm a mind reader and know everything about you."

"Yeah, probably not. But you could be a stalker." She said putting a hand to her chin.

"Uh. No I don't even look like a stalker."

"I don't know about that. Black shirt, black jeans, black shoes. You look pretty stalkerish to me."

"I'm not a stalker. Just tell me some facts about you that I may not know."

"Here are your beverages." The waitress said blandly. "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes. Sak? You first."

"Oh, yeah. I'll have spaghetti please!" She proclaimed.

"Ok. And for you sir?"

"I'll have the same thanks." He said handing bot his and her's menus.

"So, 20 questions?" Said asked.

"10."

"Hey, I'll take what I get." Sakura laughed.

"You ask the first question." She said.

"Um. Who was your last boyfriend?"

"Eh. You."

"Really? I'm the only one?"

"Yep. My first."

"Huh."

"You seem... depressed."

"No! Just, baffled, I mean a girl like you,"

"A girl like me?"

Sakura said, a what-do-you-mean-by-that look on her face.

"I mean, a girl like you; smart, nice...hot." Sai gave her, yet, another smirk, and Sakura, yet again, blushed.

"Here's your food." The waitress laid down one big, okay big is an understatement, humongous plate of spaghetti on their table, quickly walking back to serve another couple.

"Ok." Sakura said a little confused why they only gave them one humongous plate of spaghetti.

"Well, it looks delicious."

"Sure does."

The two slightly blushed, then started eating their spaghetti.

"So Sai, who was your last girlfriend."

"Um." Sai started thinking. Then put his left hand up to his chin.

"Well?" Sakura was starting to get impatient.

'_How many girlfriends could this guy of had?'_

"Eh. Here's the thing Sakura,"

"I knew it was to good to be true."

Sakura through down her fork and got up from the table, exiting Olive Garden.

"Sakura! Wait!" Sai smashed down a few bucks, then dashed out the door after Sakura.

She had slight tears in her eyes.

'_Sasuke was right. He was using me.'_

"Sakura!" She didn't stop.

"Stay away from me." She said harshly while keeping her pace forward.

"Sakura." Sai suddenly appeared in front of her. He grabbed her shoulders.

"I said leave me alone!" She broke free of his grasp and started running to the park. Sai, kept following her though.

She couldn't go any farther. She plumped down on the nearest bench. Tears starting to drip down from her eyes.

"Sakura."

"Get. Away."

"Sakura. I wasn't trying to remember any girlfriends. You've been the only one."

"Yeah? Prove it."

Sai sat next to her, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her into a kiss. It didn't last long though, no Sakura was not the one to pull away, Sai was.

"Do you believe me now?"

"I don't know."

"Look. There's a dance coming up soon. How bout we go together."

Sakura thought on it before replying.

"So, I'm really the only one? You haven't been with like a million girls dumping them after like a week?"

"What? Where would you get that? Yes. You're the only one."

"Then... I will go with you."

Sai smiled and she smiled back at him.

"C'mon. Let's get you back home."

"Okay." Came her soft and short response.

**A:N/ Ha!! You probably thought I was going to mess up the SaixSak part of the story! No, I've got a better idea of how to break them up. (Grins devilishly) Ok, so you know how I said there was going to be some lemon? Well I'm changing that, it's not going to be as lemony as I was going to make it when I first started this story. So read and review!!**

**Hey!! Has anybody ever read "A Certain Slant of Light" ? Well if you haven't, I would highly recommend it, I loved it!!**

**R&R!!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A:N/ I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this for awhile!! I've been caught up in volleyball, plus piano and homework! I've lost one game, and won one. So, this chap isn't very long and I'm sorry for that too! I'd try to update this week end, but my grandma isn't doing the best so we're going to head over there to see her. But I'll at least try to write the next chap out. R&R!!!**

**Disclaimer: oh. Not this again. This is the one I don't miss.**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter10- Their Nights: Part 1**

Sasuke still had his mind on the fight he had had with Sakura the other day. Plus her date with Sai was tonight. He tried emptying all thoughts of, or having to do with, Sakura. It didn't work.

Sasuke was planning on just spending the night a lone by himself. Clear his head. But then, he got an unexpected visitor.

–DING DONG!--

Sasuke's mom answered the door.

"Sasuke! There's someone here to see you!"

Without thinking, Sasuke bolted out of his room and to the front door.

When he arrived he saw Ino standing in the door way. He slowed down. His heart returned to normal speed.

Not who he was expecting.

"Hey Sasuke."

"Hn." He became his stoic self and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Do- would-want to take a walk with me?" She finally spat out.

"Sure." He answered, mumbling a 'I guess' after that, she didn't hear though.

Sasuke shouted a bye to his mom then he left with Ino to take a stroll in the park.

They didn't talk much. But in the middle of their 'conversation' Ino saw Sakura and Sai. They had just broken away frm a kiss.

Ino looked away, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that Sakura was looking their way.

Taking this as an opportunity, Ino Suddenly grabbed Sasuke's head and laid one smack dab on his lips.

He didn't push away, but he didn't bring her closer either. Just stood there. He hadn't seen Sakura walk past them from the other side of the park. She had looked away though.

Her heart felt as if it had just been sliced through with the sharpest of knives. It was like she didn't even have one anymore. AS if it had been taken away from her by force.

Though she didn't know why it was there, or even what** IT** was. Jealousy? Sorrow? Excitement? Sure not.

But whatever it was, she didn't like it.

Not at all.

**A:N/ So, did ya like it??? Don't 4gt 2 R&R!!!!!! **


	11. Chapter 11

**A:N/ Okay, so I know these chaps are short, and the next one will be too. But these are what I'm going to call my drabble chapters. This is where, I'm dealing with the side couples. So, I suppose you don't have to read them if you don't want to, but then you might get confused when I start back up with the main stuff. So, anyways, after this chap there's one last drabble. So yeah. ENJOY!!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 11- Their Nights: Part 2**

Things at school were getting stressful. Who knew that sakura and Sasuke's friendship had this big of an impact on their **whole** group!? Tenten has barely spoken to any of the guys since their fight. She missed talking to Neji–though she didn't want to admit it. Tenten doesn't have any parents, so her life is pretty dull. But this night was different. This night, she got an unexpected visitor.

Tenten was sitting on the roof of her house looking at the stars, like she always did when life got tough.

She felt a strange presence nearby. She turned around.

Standing right behind her was none other than Hyuuga, Neji.

"Neji? What do you think you're doing here?"

"Honestly?"

"Um. Yeah."

"Don't know."

"So what, you just felt like showing up?"

"Guess."

Tenten turned back to her gazing. Neji came and sat down next to her.

"Tenten, we need to talk."

"About Sasuke and Sakura. I know."

"Well, that , and... us."

"Us? OH! You mean the **whole group** us."

"No. You and me us."

"What? But- but Neji, t-there is no-no y-you and me-me us."

"I-I know."

"So then-"

"But I'd like there to be."

Neji leaned in, as did Tenten.

**A:N/ So, yeah. Don't really have anything to say right now. Except...**

**R&R!!! ❤**


	12. Chapter 12

**A:N/ Okay, last dabble for this part of the story!! So, after this the main story will resume!!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 12- Their Nights: part 3**

_-Ring-Ring-Ring-Ri-_

"Hello?" Hinata asked picking up the phone.

"Hey Hinata-chan!"

"O-oh! N-nar-naruto-kun."

"Hey, I was a... wonderin' if you'd like to a-go get some ramen with m-me?"

Hinata was stunned. Was Naruto, the Naruto Uzamaki, asking her, shy timid, weird, Hinata to go get ramen with him, HIM!?

"So, what do ya say? You up for it?"

"O-of course!"

"Great! I"ll meet cha there in 10?"

"S-sounds g-great."

"Ok! I'll see ya soon then! Bye!"

_-click-_

"Bye."

She was still stunned. Could this be considered as a date? Or was it just two friends eating ramen and talking? Whatever. Hinata is going to make the best out of it anyway.

Hinata quickly through on a light, navy blue hoodie–it's pretty chilly out.

She walked. And she walked. All the time thinking about why Naruto would want to have ramen with her.

Naruto was waiting patiently when Hinata arrived.

"Hey Naruto-kun!" She didn't stutter!

"Hello Hinata-chan!" Hinata took a seat beside Naruto.

He ordered two beef ramens and they started talking, mostly about what was going on between Sasuke and Sakura. Also how Ino had been acting a little strangely that week.

And get this, Hinata practically went the whole conversation without stuttering!

"Hinata, are you going to homecoming?"

"I was planning on it." She said, wondering where this was going.

"Are you going with anyone?"

"Well, Sakura and Tenten."

"I-I mean boy wise."

"N-no."

"So, it would be alright if I were to go with you?"

Hinata turned toward him, first with a shocked face–which soon turned into the brightest smile she had ever given anyone in her entire life.

**A:N/ Okay!! Enough of the cute little dabbles! Now, on to the real story!! I don't know when I'll next be able to get on, but I'll do my best!!**

**I'D LIKE 2 THANK ALL OF THE REVIEWERS THAT REVIEWED THIS STORY! EVEN IF THEY ONLY REVIEWED A COUPLE OF THE CHAPS!!**

**YOU KNOW, I'D LIST ALL OF YOU GUYS, BUT THERE'S TOO MANY, BUT THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A:N/ Hello!!! Uh, it seems it's been so long since I updated this!! Well during my non-writing weeks, I managed to win 24$. So that's good. And, well we had homecoming week. That's always fun. And so yeah. Nothing much. So, you just read this chapter, then push your favorite button. The one that says REVIEW at the end of this chap.**

**OH, yeah, since November 10 is my birthday, I'm updating all of my stories. Just a little gift from me to you. **

**ENJOY!!!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 13 - Homecoming**

_**Homecoming week:**_

_Monday:_ Twin day

Sakura and Tenten were twins. They wore two different pairs of knee socks, both wearing one of each pair. They did the same thing with earrings. They wore cacky blue jean shorts. They also wore each others shoes. Both wore a bright blood-shot red t-shirt.

Hinata and Ino were twins. They went with something simple. A bright sun shine yellow shirt, same pair of shoes, and jeans. Both wore their hair up in a messy bun.

_Tuesday:_ Crazy day

Sakura wore a hot pink mini-skirt with sky blue knee toe socks that also had lime green stripes all over them. She had a tie die t-shirt with the colors blue, purple and pink.

_Wednesday:_ Hat day

Sakura wore a joker's hat that had red, yellow, and green stripes. Each point coming off the hat had a bell on it.

Tenten wore a clown wig. It only had the colors red, blue, purple, and yellow though.

Ino wore this hat that was in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. She had been to France a couple years back.

Hinata wore a plain cap that had the words "John Deere" on it.

_Thursday:_ Pajama Day!!! **(That would be sweeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt!!!!)**

_Friday:_ Blue and Gold day (that's their school colors)

All of Sakura's friends basically wore the same thing.

Glitter spread all over their body. Gold hair spray in their hair. Each wore a "Konoha Cougar" jersey

**(I couldn't think of any other team names, so if your home town is a Cougar or what ever, it was by complete accident that I chose that.)**

They wore golden sweats also.

Sakura would so be going to the game, Sai was the captain.

Konoha would be playing their biggest competitors Australian Aussies.

**(It's all that my brain would let me enter into my dang head!!!)**

It was a really close game. For the first two periods they were behind by 10 points. 15 to 5. Then after that little break thingy they picked up the pace. The total was 25 to 22. The Cougars had won by 3 points.

Everyone was hyped up. And the next day would be the homecoming dance.

**(there's 4 periods in football right?? O wow, I hope so. I'm no good at football, so I'm sorry if the scoring is like impossible to get or whatever.)**

Sakura had heard from her admirer during the week. Only once though. She hadn't been getting much from him, which made her extremely sad. The song he left behind was:

_**TIM McGRAW**_

"_**I Need You"**_

_[Verse 1_

_I wanna drink that shot of whiskey_

_I wanna smoke that cigarette_

_I wanna smell that sweet addiction on my breath_

_I wanna ride cross west Virginia on the backseat of a Cadillac_

_You know some cowboys like me go out like that so I need you_

_[Chorus_

_Like a needle needs a vein_

_Like Uncle Joe in Oklahoma needs a rain_

_I need you like a lighthouse on the coast_

_Like the father and the son needs the holy ghost_

_I need you_

_[Verse 2_

_I wanna get lost in some corner booth_

_A canteena in Mexico_

_I wanna dance to the static of an a.m. radio_

_I wanna wrap the moon around us and lay beside you skin on skin_

_Make love til' the sun comes up and the sun goes down again cause i need you_

_[Chorus_

_Like a needle needs a vein_

_Like Uncle Joe in Oklahoma needs a rain_

_I need you_

_Like a lighthouse on the coast_

_Like the father and the son needs the holy ghost_

_I need you_

_I wanna drink that shot of whiskey_

_I wanna smoke that cigarette_

_You know some cowboys like me go like that I need you_

_Saturday:_ Homecoming Dance wahoo!!!

Tenten, Hinata, Ino, and Sakura spent all week figuring out outfits for Friday. Homecoming!!

Nobody got too dressed up for homecoming, nope they saved **that** for prom.

Ino decided on a dark purple dress with an even darker lacy type thing at the bottom rim of it. The dress ends at her knees. It covers about an inch of her shoulders. She wore a pair of black heels with it. Her hair was in the typical pony tail.

Hinata had on a sky blue dress that was shorter on her right and then got longer as it went left. At the end of the dress it did sort of riffle out thing. The dress has spaghetti straps. She wore a pair of silver shoes and her hair was down.

Tenten wore a strong red dress. It has a V neck and also went down to about her knees. On the left side was a piece of string hanging down, and the bottom part of the dress also had this riffle effect. She had on red low-heels and had her hair the also usual two buns.

Sakura wore a pailish orange dress. It was a halter dress with a V neck also. The dress reached down past her knees by like 2". Like some of the other dresses it had the riffle look. She wore a pair of white heels with it. Her hair was in a very complex bun, and she had a few strands hanging down on her left side. On her left wrist she wore a silver charm bracelet her dad had given to her on her 13th birthday.

All the guys were wearing tux's but they just had on different ties.

Naruto wore an orange bow tie with red polka-dots, Sasuke had on a deep blue (dark) tie. Neji wore a white tie. Then Sai was wearing an indigo looking tie.

When Sai and Sakura arrived at the dance Naruto, Hinata, Neji, and Tenten were already there. Neither Sasuke or Ino were anywhere in sight. The girls stood around talking about each other's outfits. Sakura was just in the middle of talking about where she got her dress when she heard an extremely high pitched "SAKURA!" She turned around and the smile got smacked off of her face.

Ino was dragging Sasuke through the crowd. She had the biggest smile on her face. She quickly put on a fake smile and welcomed Ino into their conversation.

"So, um, Ino. You came with Sasuke?"

'_Why did he have to be here? He'll ruin everything.'_

That's what Sakura **wished **she was mad about. Fat chance there.

"Yeah! He just called me up yesterday asking me if I'd go with him! I said yes of course!"

'_Yeah, like that would happen. Sasuke despises her!'_

"Yeah. Of course." Sakura replied.

A slow song hit the speakers and all the couples walked out on the dance floor (A.K.A. school gym).

The only people sitting were the nerds and the guys too shy to ask their crush, while the crush is out having a horrible time because the person they also liked didn't ask them, so they went with some random guy.

'I have this feeling inside me envy of Ino maybe? Why not? Sasuke is amazing! He's handsome, funny, he's–where the hell did that come from?'

"Sakura?" she looked up at her date, confusion written all over her face.

"Y-yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your face is all flushed. You're not catching a fever are you?"

It was then that Sakura realized that she had started blushing from her thoughts of Sasuke.

"No. I'm fine! It's just kind of stuffy in here. I think I"ll just go sit down for a while."

Sakura left Sai on the dance floor. She sat down next to a girl with four pigtails coming out from her head. Sakura put her elbows on her knees and hunched over.

"Sakura? Is that really you?"

Sakura barely recognized the voice. She sat up and was instantly over joyed.

"Temari!"

"Sakura!"

The two shared a huge hug.

"OMG! I can't believe you're here! I thought you moved to Sand in 2nd grade!"

"I did but then my father got a job back here so we moved back!"

The two couldn't believe it. They've been friends since kindergarten. Her, Sasuke and Sakura had had a pretty tight bond. Not as tight as the Sakura Sasuke bond of course.

"So, how's Sasuke?"

"Ok." Sakura's face kind of dropped at that mention.

"Why the look? You're still friends, right?!"

"Well, we got into a fight a few weeks back. We haven't been talking much."

"Really? But you guys are so close. What could have possibly ruined that?"

Sakura looked around the dance floor for Sai. She found him talking to one of his buddies.

"See that brown-haired guy with the indigo tie? He's talking to some guy with orange hair."

Temari looked in the direction Sakura was pointing in.

"Yeah. What about him?"

"That's my boyfriend."

"Hm. Not all too bad on the eyes. Of course I always thought you'd-" Sakura looked over at her. "Um. Never mind. Go on.""

"Sasuke got all over me about how he thinks that he's using me. Or something along those lines."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Sakura's face looked down at the floor.

"So, besides that, what's been going on?"

"Well... I've got a secret admirer." Sakura said looking up blushing.

"Are you serious?"

She nodded. Temari didn't even know what to say. Her face was awe struck.

"Excuse me. May I interrupt?"

Both girls looked up.

"Hey Sai!" Sakura said smiling.

"Sorry to interrupt, but may I intrude?"

"Yeah." Sakura stood up, but then a sharp pain hit her ankle. She looked down at Temari and gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sai, this is my long lost friend Temari."

Sai noticed the girl that Sakura had been with and leant out his hand.

"Nice to meet you."

Temari shook his hand, and stood up.

"Likewise. It was nice seeing you again Sakura!"

The two hugged again before Temari walked off. Sai looked back over towards Sakura and smiled.

"C'mon, we need to go somewhere private."

Sai took hold of her hand and Sakura followed him willingly. He took her outside, in the back of the building.

'_What is he doing?'_

Sai stopped and turned around to face Sakura.

"Sai? What did you want to talk about?"

**Sasuke**

'_This dance is so boring.'_

Sasuke was currently being clung onto by Ino, having her talk about how her life sucks, how pretty she is, you know, that type of Ino crap.

"Sasuke, I'm parched."

"Yeah, so?'

Don't you want to get some punch for me?"

"Hn."

Ino walked over to a chair and sat down. Sasuke walked over to the punch bowl.

"Dude, can you believe he's actually going to do it?"

Sasuke started stalling.

"I know. That Haruno girl is REALLY hot, but I don't think she'll go for it. No matter how much she likes him."

Sasuke's anger was slowly increasing.

"Or, maybe she would."

Sasuke set down the cup he was holding and walked over to the two guys that were talking.

"What are you guys talking about."

Standing on the left was the boy that Sai had been talking to earlier, the one with orange hair. Standing next to him was another boy. But this kid had green hair. Not tree green, I mean lime green, highlighter green! Kind of strange don't ya think. The one with green hair replied.

"Oh, Sai just stepped outside two talk two this Sakura girl."

The kid with orange hair hit him on the head.

"Freak! We weren't supposed to tell anybody!"

"Where would I find them?"

Sasuke asked.

"Heh. Like we'd tell you." The guy with orange hair said, covering his friends mouth.

Sasuke smirked, not one of his famous ones, this one was evil. A flash of red went through his eyes. To the two boys they saw blood. Their blood.

"Like hell you will orangey." Sasuke said through gritted teethe so only they could hear him.

Both were wide eyed and mortified.

"They're in the back building!" They said simotaniously, then running off before more could be said. Sasuke smirked and walked off to find Sakura.

**Sakura**

"What did you want to talk about?" Sakura asked.

"This." He said leaning in, his hands slithering around her waist to bring her close to him.

He made contact with their lips, and pushed her up against the wall. Sakura responded by kissing him back, both fight for dominance. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

That's when things started getting too far.

Sai's hands slowly made their way up to Sakura's neck and untied the knot her mom had tied for her. Sakura instantly pulled away, slamming her back against the wall.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

He moved closer to her, putting his arms around her making it impossible for her to escape.

"What do you think I'm doing?" He said.

He attacked her lips again with more force. She tried to push away, but he was too strong for her. Then, he started messing with her hair, and started kissing her down her neck.

Sakura was starting to get worn out of her struggling, and her face was wet with tears.

"Stop! Get off! Stop it!" She screamed.

Sai smirked.

'_He smirked. He thinks this is funny! Sasuke was right. He was just using me.'_

Sakura started crying for a whole other reason now. Not of what Sai was doing to her, but of how she hadn't believed her best friend. The friend that was always there for her. The one that had never let he get hurt, the one that's kept her safe for all these years. She didn't believe him. Why? She didn't know, and now she regretted it more than ever.

Sai was about to strip off her dress when–

"Get. Off. Her."

Sai turned around. Only to be met by the powerful force of Sasuke's fist meeting his face. Sai stumbled away from Sakura, gripping his face. His nose and mouth bleeding. Sakura had pulled up her dress where Sai had untied it. Sakura slid down the wall, head tucked between her knees. Now not only was her face wet, but her knees as well. In the mean time Sasuke was beating up Sai.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to her!?"

"I think I was trying to knock her up!"

"Bitch." Sasuke said before punching Sai again, knocking him unconscious.

Sasuke walked over to Sakura.

"Hey." She didn't answer. Just cried.

"Are you okay?"

This time she responded by throwing her arms around him and crying into the crook of his neck. Sasuke happily wrapped his arms around her squeezing her tighter, like saying 'I'll never let you go'.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, between her crying and muffling of his tux it was difficult for him to hear, but Sasuke did.

"Don't be." He said bring her closer to him.

"But, if I would've listened to you this never would have happened!" she said, tightening her grip on his shirt. He took the two pieces of cloth that was supposed to keep her dress up and tied them back together.

"It's okay." He said, making her look up at him.

She gave him a small smile and laid her head on his shoulder. He put his head on top of her head. Both were happy to have the other back in their lives. Smelling their incense, feeling their touch, and hearing each other's voices ringing through their ears once again.

"You ready to go back inside?" Sasuke asked after 15 minutes of silence.

"Yeah."

They stood up, Sasuke helping Sakura. Sakura laid her head on his shoulder again and Sasuke had his arm draped over her shoulder. When Sasuke and Sakura entered the gym Tenten, Hinata, and Temari ran up to them.

"Sakura! What happened?!" Tenten asked.

"Um. I'd rather not talk about it right now." Tenten backed off.

"So, does this mean you guys are friends now?" Temari asked.

Sasuke hadn't really noticed her until now.

"Temari?"

"Let's see, blond hair, 4 pig tails, yep it's me!" she said people laughing at her.

They came into a hug and Temari slapped his back, just like old times.

"It's good to see you Uchiha." Temari said pulling away.

"Yeah. You too." he said.

"Sasuke?" Came a voice behind him and Sakura. They turned around.

"Hey Ino-pig." Sakura said.

"Hello." she said, almost confused.

"Sakura, I thought you were mad at Sasuke." said Ino.

"I was. But then Sai, he, well you know. Anyways, Sasuke was right about him."

"Oh."

Then there was a sort of awkward silence..

"Wait a minute! Who's she?!" Ino shouted pointing a finger at Temari.

"Oh! That's rigt. Ino-pig doesn't know you yet Temari."

"Temari?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" She said, plastering a huge grin over her face.

"Uh,hu." Ino said.

"Yeah. Ino, meet Temari, Temari, meet Ino." Sakura said.

"So, Sakura-chan how **do you** know Temari?" asked Hinata.

"Oh. Right. Well in kindergarten me, Sasuke, and her were **best** friends. Then in 2nd grade she had to move to the Sand. We haven't seen her since. Well, until now that is."

"Correcto!" Temari said.

"So Temari, if you're new here, how come you knew about the dance?" Naruto asked.

Everyone's eyes immediately stared intently at Temari.

"Hey, wait a minute," Sakura said, noticing Temari's and Shikamaru's unusually close proximity. "Shika, you don't happen to know Temari by any chance, do you?"

Both immediately started blushing. Then everybody started to take notice of their closeness, well except Naruto. It would take a miracle for him to grasp the concept.

"Why do you ask?"he said, both inching away from each other.

"Oh. Just because you guys make **such** an adorable couple! Plus you're awfully close to each other."

"Sakura, you're just being superstitious." Temari told her.

"OMG! Shikamaru and Temari came to the dance together!" Shouted Naruto.

Temari and Shika became suddenly tense, and unusually red.

"That would explain you two dancing together earlier tonight." Tenten stated.

Shika and Temari dropped their heads in defeat.

"I surrender." Temari said throwing her arms up in the air.

"So, tell me how you know each other." Sakura said.

"Well, you know that one week last year where I missed school?" Shika said.

"Yeah." They all said, not all at the same time though.

"Well, I had gone on a business trip for my father because he was ill at the time. While I was ther, I had to do some business work with Temari. I mentioned how I knew Sasuke and Sakura. Then, she said that she might be moving back to Konoha, but she didn't want me to mention anything."

Temari nodded in agreement with Shika's answer.

"So, I know how you guys met now, but why did you come to the dance together?" Sakura continued questioning.

"Actually, Temari stared, "that was by accident." Shika finished for her.

"See, I didn't know exactly **when** I would be returning. So when I did and heard about the dance from my mom, don't ask me how **she** knew, I figured you'd all be here partying it off." Temari said.

"Yeah. Then I saw her and we just started hanging out again, dance a couple of times, etc." Shika said.

"So, are you two like going out now?" Tenten asked.

"Well, no. We're just friends. Besides, we don't even know each other that much." Temari said.

"Okay. But maybe you guys should think about it." Tenten pressed on.

Temari and Shika both gave her glares.

"Or, maybe not. You know that's cool too." She said, taking a few steps back.

"Uchiha." A voice sounded from behind the group. Sasuke turned around, fist meeting face.

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed.

Apparently Sai had woken up, and wasn't too happy. When he had punched Sasuke, he had banged his back against the wall the group was standing by. Sakura ran over to Sasuke and helped him stand up. She kept her arm intertwined with his. He tried lunging out at Sai but Sakura held him back.

"Sasuke. Don't. Let's just go." She said, pulling Sasuke away from Sai and his friends.

Sasuke followed.

"Oh, come on Sakura, it was just a joke! We're still cool right?" Sai shouted.

Sakura stopped walking and so did Sasuke. He turned to look at her. She started walking back towards Sai.

"No. Said, od you want to know what the joke is?" Sakura asked him. "It's you." Sakura raised her right hand and slapped him across the face.

She spun around, and walked out of the dance with Sasuke.

"Huh. That felt good." She said.

Sasuke started laughing at her. The hopped into Sasuke's car.

"I missed this car." Sakura said.

"The car missed you." Sasuke said, revving the engine then driving off.

"So, should I just take you home?" Sasuke asked.

"Nah. It's homecoming. Besides, do you know how long it has been since I last talked to you?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't counting." He said.

"Oh wow." Sakura said looking at Sasuke.

"What?" he asked, taking a quick glance at her before returning his eyes to the road.

"Your nose. It's bleeding." she said.

"Oh. Well that's not so 'wow'. I figured as much. He really packed a punch."

"Yeah but still."

Sasuke pulled into his drive way and they both got out. When they entered Sasuke's house, Sakura went straight to their bathroom and grabbed some supplies to fix Sasuke's nose.

"Ok. Go sit down on the couch." Sakura said. Sasuke obeyed.

"Tip your head back." She said. He tipped it.

Sakura placed a wad of tissues on his nose.

"Now, hold on to that and pinch your nose on the bridge." Sasuke did as he was tole.

"Now stay like that for awhile."

"Are you kidding me? This feels weird."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh because Sasuke's voice sound really weird with his nose pinched.

"Great. Now I'm the laughing stalk." Sakura clutched her stomach and fell all the way back into the couch.

Mikoto had been upstairs, and had heard them come in. When she heard laughter downstairs she decided to go see what was going on. She stayed hidden in the shadows. Upon arriving in the living room she saw Sasuke and Sakura laughing together.

"Just like old times." She whispered to herself.

A smile creeped its way onto her face, and she returned upstairs.

**A:N/ Up in my first AN I mentioned it was my birthday and that's why I was writing this chapter and updating other chapters. As a gift to my reviewers.**

**Now I've got another reason.**

**On Saturday November 3, 7:11 am. My grandmother died. I'd rather not get into to much detail. She had been really sick for the past 6-7 months. She refused to eat and little by little her weight dropped. This is the only chapter I was able to get typed up and posted as my gift.**

**My birthday is on Saturday Nov. 10. But I dedicate this chapter to my grandma. She was really cool. I always joined her during her morning coffee. I never drank any, but we sat and chatted. Then when it was chore time on the farm I'd go out and help her.**

**I dedicate this chapter to my grandma and other people's grandmas that have passed away. Also, to any other relatives that I've or anybody else has lost.**

**I'm devastated yes, and I'm sure other's have been also. In fact if you've ever lost a relative, you don't have to mention who go ahead and at the end of your review put a ":("**

**On better notes, please review my story. I hoped you liked it!!! **


	14. Chapter 14

**A:N/ Hello again!! Well, this is my Christmas present to you all. I know it's probably not the longest chapter you've ever seen, but you know. I personally think it's actually a pretty good chapter. I don't know about you guys. **

**Well, enjoy it! And a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL! **

"_**May God bless us, everyone!"**_

**Crushes Between Friends-**

**Chapter 14 - Mishaps in the Lunchroom**

Just like old times. Sasuke and Sakura spent practically the whole weekend together. Catching up, hanging out, and doing what best friends do best. Don't get me wrong, part of the weekend they spent time with the rest of the gang, and Temari, but just not as much. I don't know about them, but I'd get pretty annoyed of some of my friends if I spent the whole weekend with them. (No offense guys.) Back to the point. Sakura and Sasuke were surprisingly **not** sick of each other though. Of course what do you expect, Sakura was being a fricken idiot for like a whole 2 months while Sasuke was basically trying to save her. But did she listen? NOOOO!! Anyways, got kind of off track again, they had a good time.

All was well on Monday until Sakura got notice from her secret admirer again.

**I TOLD YOU SO: KEITH URBAN**

_You said you needed your space  
I wasn't where you wanted to be  
I didn't stand in your way  
I only want you to be happy  
And so surprised am I to see you here tonight _

_Well, can't you see that for worse or for better  
We're better together  
Please, just come back home  
And don't say that you're sorry  
And I won't say I told you so _

_Sometimes in our lives  
We get to where we wonder if  
The long road that we're onIs heading in the same direction  
When it comes to you and me  
We're right where I know we should be _

_Oh, can't you see that for worse or for better  
We're better together  
Please, just come back home  
And don't say that you're sorry  
And I won't say I told you so _

_Sometimes it's like we're deep in nothing but love  
And the slightest thing can grow so foolishly  
Please _

_Oh, can't you see that for worse or for better  
We're better together  
Please, just come back home  
And don't say that you're sorry  
And I won't say I told you so  
But I told you so  
Should have known better  
Than to leave me, baby  
Should have known better  
Than to leave me, darling _

That'S the song she left fo her. It kind of creeped her out to tell ya the truth. What it was about, she had no idea. She didn't have the faintest idea of why he gave her that song. But besides that, the day was good.

Well, it was good until that happened. It was during lunch. The gang was eating like usual, everybody there. Except Ino.

Sakura had barely seen her all dya. Each time Sakura got close to her Ino would turn and walk the other way.

Well, she didn finally see her. But she wished she hadn't.

Sakura had been talking to Temari for the whole lunch period. Doing some catch-up talking, seeing what had changed over the past 10 years, a lot by the fact. It had suddenly gotten quieter in the lunch room. Sakura turned begind her to see what everyone was looking at.

Ino was standing on one of the dark indigo tables 3 away from where Sakura was sitting.

'_Hey, what's ino doing up __**there**__?' _Sakura thought.

The first words that flowed from Ino's mouth were as follows:

"Who here has noticed Haruno, Sakura's newly gained weight?"

Sakura was astounded why, Ino her best friend of people. Was asking this. What was the point of this going to be? Sakura looked around to see if anybody had actually raised their hands. All of Sasuke's fangirls and get this, Sai and his friends. Sakura turned back to Ino. She had continued.

"Well, if you've been wondering where it all came from it wasn't from her eating habits, which are very piggy by the way." INo paused for a moment. Before continuing, One of Sai's friends asked a question.

"So if it isn't from her being a natural pig, then what?"

Ino replied:

"Ah, I was hoping someone would ask that. Well, since I don't want to spoil his fun, I'll let him tell all of you himself."

Sai stood up and started walking towards Ino, joining her on top of the lunch table. Everyone's attention was on the two standing.

"I banged Haruno, Sakura!" Sai shouted.

Sakura wasn't sure if anyone actually believed this, but when it was said there were gasps and students started whispering and pointing over at Sakura. Sakura, all the shile was glaring at Ino and Sai. Ino gave her a malicious smirk. Sakura jumped up and started to make her way towards Sai and Ino. They had gotten down off the table and both were laughing. When Sakura had reached them she tried to hurt them in some way, but luckily Temari and Sasuke had followed her and held her back. Sakura tried really hare to break free but couldn't.

"Aw. Is wittle Sakura mad?" Ino asked tilting her head to the left.

Sakura just glared.

"Ugh. You aren't going to cry are you?"

Sakura continued glaring. Ino just looked back at her with the same glare. Then Sakura finally spoke.

"What the freakin gell was that about!?"

Ino continued to smile.

"Oh, that little thing? Well ya see. I want something you're in the way," Ino moved close to Sakura's face, and Sakura kept a straight face, "so I'm taking you down."

Sakura glared and started struggling again. She finally broke loose, but she didn't go attacking Ino or Sai. Ino had backed up thinking she had wan. But Sakura got in Ino's face this time.

"Yeah? Well, you'd better be watching your back then. Because if I'm going down, I'll be taking you with me."

Sakura had jabbed Ino in the shoulder. Then she walked off. Sakura hadn't really talked with anyone during the rest of the school day. Sasuke had decided to wait until their ride home to talk to her about lunch.

"So what do you think Ino wants so badly?" Sasuke asked right off the bat.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke looked questioningly over at her.

"It's you."

**A:N/ Well, did you like it? I found it very fun to type. Very dramatic. But who cares what I think, I want to know what my reviewers think!! So there's only one way to do that. You've got to press that little button right over there that says 'review' on it. Thanx bunches!! Keep those reviews coming!!**

**IMPORTANT!!**

**I WASN'T ABLE TO PUT THE PICTURES INTO MY PROFILE. I'LL KEEP TRYING THOUGH, AND IF I DO GET IT TO WORK, THEN I'LL LET YOU ALL KNOW. **


	15. Chapter 15

**A:N/ Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Day. I know I did! Can you believe it's already '08 I can't. I also can't believe that it's almost the end of the year! That's means there's only one-and-a-half years till I'm in highschool! Yikes! Okay, well anyways, I hope you like this chapter because I've sort of got I smidgin of writer's block. Yeah, I know, not good. Well, let's hope this chapter gets me back on track a little bit. Enjoy!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 15 - The Things we do for Friends**

Probably the worst day of Sakura's life was Thursday. Two days after the lunchroom incident. The car ride to school was awkwardly silent with Sasuke today, and yet she still didn't know why, she knew she'd be finding out soon. Right when they arrived at school Sasuke just up and disappeared. No good-byes. In first period he remained disconnected from the rest of the group.

"Sakura, do you know what's going on with Sasuke?" asked Tenten after second period had ended.

"Not a clue." sakura replied.

Hinata then joined them in walking to third period.

"Have you guys noticed anything different going on around the school?" Hinata asked immediately.

Sakura and Tenten both looked around the school, but nothing seemed different.

"No. It looks as boring as ever." Tenten said.

Hinata looked at them both as if they were two roosters mooing.

"The signs." Hinata said, almost making a 'duh' face.

Sakura and Tenten took another look around the school, now looking for the posters thata Ino had been plastering everywhere. But, like being invisible, they weren't in sight anywhere.

"What the hell." Sakura said, more to herself than to them.

Hinata, Tenten, and unfortunately Ino, were all in her classes for the rest of the day. What was really weird was that Ino was actually being **nice** to Sakura. It actually scared her.

Lunch was the scariest, Ino sat at their table. **Ino** sat **next** to **Sasuke**. Sakura was on his other side. It was almost like they were all supposed to be friends again. Ino even acted like they were friends agian. People at the table tried to avoid conversation with Ino, which she didn't really notice since she was too busy talking with Sasuke. It infuriated Sakura a lot. He'd have some explaining to do on the way home.

The rest of the day didn't go well and neither did the ride home. Actually, there was no ride home. Sasuke had taken Ino home, but never waited for sakura in the parking lot. Instead Sakura had to grab a ride from Tenten's mom. She thanked Tenten's mom and Tenten.

Tenten walked Sakura to the door like a good friend would. Plus she wanted to talk to Sakura without listening ears.

"Why didn't Sasuke wait up?" she asked Sakura.

Sakura shrugged. "I saw Ino climb into his car, and then he drove off."

Sakura was extremely pissed off.

He'd better hope that if he showed his face to her there better not be a heavy metal object nearby.

"Well, if you need a ride to school tomorrow just call, okay?" Tenten said putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura nodded then gave her friend a hug.

Before walking in Sakura checked to see if Sasuke was home yet. He wasn't. When Sakura entered the house her mom asked how school was, and Sakura replied "crappy." She went straight up to her room and started on homework. Around about 5:30 she got a phone call. It was Sasuke. She took it into her room.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Mr. Uchiha. Are you finally going to tell me that you aren't taking me home after school today?" Sakura said, upon closing ehr door.

"Look, I'm sorry about the whole school thing."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I just hitched a ride with a **friend**"

"Sakura just hear me out."

"Why? You obviously think Ino is a better friend than me. Why do **you** have to explain?"

"Sakura,"

"No, no, don't waste your breathe. It's perfectly alright."

"Sakura! I don't think of Ino as a friend!" Sasuke yelled at her.

"Oh, I see, you've got a crush on her. Well, don't let me get in the way."

"Sakura wait, that's not what I-"

"Good-bye Sasuke, I'll see you first period tomorrow."

--click–

"Sakura?" Sasuke said into the phone, "Sakura?" Still no reply.

Sasuke threw the phone then fell back on his bed.

Sakura sat slowly down on her bed. Her fingers became weak and she dropped the phone onto her carpet. She place her elbows on her knees. Her hands held her face, and when she began to cry, they held her tears too. She never went down for dinner. Her mother began to worry about her, so went upstairs to her room.

She enter silently and found Sakura lying down. Her two legs dangling off the bed touching the floor, and the rest of her body in an awkward angle. Her head laid on her pillow. Her mother sighed and walked over to her. She lifted up her daughter's legs onto the bed and covered her up. She noticed that Sakura's eyes were slightly swollen.

"When will you two finally catch on?" she asked her daughter, not expecting a response.

She laid a kiss upon her daughter's cheek and exited her room.

The first thing Sakura did the next morning was call Tenten to let her know that she'd be needing a ride to school. Sakura being too lazy to spend much time on clothing just threw on a pair of washed out blue jeans with a maroon sweat shirt and pine green flat tenna shoes. She threw her hair up into a high pony tail, grabbed her books and school bag, then left her room. Waiting for her on the kitchen table was a box of Cheerios and some 1 milk. She poured herself a small bowl, and managed to finish before Tenten came. Sakura sat and watched the news, which she hated, while she waited for Tenten.

When she did arrive, Sakura quickly got up and walked to the front door. While they were walking to Tenten's car, Sakura noticed that Sasuke was also leaving then too.

Tenten and Sakura didn't talk much on their way to school. They wanted to wait until they met up with Hinata to talk. They found her sitting on the edge of the fountain with Naruto. It seemed that they were in deep conversation, so Sakura and Tenten decided to leave them alone.

**HINATA & NARUTO-**

"H-he's what?' Hinata asked.

"He's only going out with ehr to help Sakura."

"Oh, wow."

"Yeah."

"Is someone going to tell her?"

"That's just it, I'm afraid, me being his best friend and all, that she might not believe me. So, I was thinking maybe you could tell her."

Hinata nodded immediately.

**TENTEN & SAKURA-**

Tenten and Sakura were making their way to first period when they heard their friend Hinata coming up from behind them. They turned around and saw her running up to them.

"Sakura! Sakura!"

When Hinata reached them she was panting heavily.

"What's up Hinata?" Sakura asked.

"Sakura, you know how Sasuke ditched you yesterday?"

"Um, yeah."

"Well, it's because he's going out with Ino."

Sakura's face seemed to darken a bit.

"I know." she answered.

Sakura pivoted around and started walking away.

"Sakura wait!"

Hinata and Tenten caught up to her. She kept walking.

"The only reason he did it was to help you."

Sakura stopped in her tracks and Hinata stopped in front of her. Sakura looked as though she was about to cry. She gulped back a sob before answering.

"That still doesn't explain his avoiding me." she said.

"That's because she made him promise that he'd stay away from you as far as possible."

Sakura's mouth dropped open.

"Where did you hear this from?" Sakura asked, gulping back another sob.

"Naruto told me."

Sakura then knew that it had to be true because Naruto would **never** lie to Hinata.

Tenten and Hinata waited for Sakura to reply, but she didn't.

"Sakura, this is _somewhat_ good news... right?" Tenten asked.

"I don't know, is it?" Sakura asked, almost letting a sob escape her.

She went around Tenten and Hinata to get to first period.

Sakura would rather have gone around the school being called a 'slut' than to have her best friend taken away from her.

But apparently in Sasuke's eyes, he'd rather see Sakura **not** go around the school as a 'slut.' So much that he'd go out with the one who started it all. Ino, Yamanka.

**A:N/ So, you like it? Um, well I hope that you did. Has anyone read "Sam's Letters to Jennifer"? It's by James Patterson, and it's so romantic and extremely sad! I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm about 3/4 of the way done. Don't tell my teachers, but I've been reading that book instead of my AR book at night. Shh. Anyway, I'll try to update soon. As long as I get good reviews. Nah, if there are some bad ones I'll still update it.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A:N/ Happy Valentines Day! This my gift to you! Since it's Valentines Day I'll add a little more lovey stuff between Sasuke and Sakura. Well, just a bit more, more than what there's been in the past two to three chapters. Enjoy my Valentines Day Special!**

**Disclaimer: I haven't done this for awhile so I think I'll renew it. I don't own the show Naruto or any of it's contents.**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 16 - Confrontation**

Every time Sakura had a class with Sasuke she felt his eyes on her. Of course, considering how freakin pissed she was at him, she pretended not to notice. Sasuke didn't get why Sakura was acting like this because in his eyes he saved her from humiliation. Sakura saw it as Ino getting what she wanted. And she hated it.

"Sakura, if you hate this so much, then why don't you tell him?" Tenten asked Sakura on their way to science.

"What help would that be?" Sakura retaliated.

"Well at least then he would know why you're completely ignoring him. Let's not forget he thinks this is for your own good."

Sakura thought about this for awhile. It never dawned on her what Sasuke might be going through. Or the stuff going through his head.

**-----------------------------------------------Sakura: After school--------------------------------------------**

"I'll be back in a little bit Mom!" Sakura shouted, exiting the house.

"Okay sweetie!"

Sakura closed the door behind her. She looked over at Sasuke's house and took a deep breathe. Sakura slowly walked down her steps and walked over to Sasuke's house.

–_knock–knock–knock_

Footsteps.

Michiko answered the door.

"Oh, hello Sakura! Sasuke is up in his room. You can go right on up."

Sakura nodded.

She made her way slowly up the stairs, and knocked when she got to Sasuke's door. She was flipping out. They hadn't made much communication at all this year.

Sasuke opened the door. Surprise was the first expression that came on his face. Then...he blushed.

Sasuke stepped out of the way and let Sakura in, closing the door behind her. They stood in awkward silence for several moments. Sasuke was the first one to speak.

"So...Naruto told you?"

Sakura nodded. "Actually he told Hinata who told me."

Sasuke made a little nod.

Sakura started rocking back and forth on her feet.

"So, how have you be-"

"Why did you do it?"

"What?"

"Why did you say yes to her?"

"Naruto explained it didn't he?"

"He just told me that you were, not why."

Sasuke paused for a moment. Two moments.

"Well?"

"I didn't want to see you get hurt."

"So you thought that I wouldn't be hurt if you went out with Ino."

"It's better than going around the school as a skank isn't it!?"

"Not any better than never getting to talk to my best friend!"

"I didn't know she was going to make us not talk."

"Well apparently you did because you've done a fantastic job of it!"

"I didn't know it at the time. She didn't tell me till later, after I agreed."

Sakura walked a couple steps closer to him.

"Yeah. But you still knew. You could have backed out. But no. You went along with it. Does our friendship mean nothing to you!?"

"Our friendship is the reason I did this in the first place!"

"How does our friendship have anything to do with the decision you made?"

"Everything! I could have let you drown in all that crap, but I didn't. I stood up for! I stopped it!"

"Yeah, but now look at us! We're not friends! We fight, we barely even talk to each other any more!"

"That's what friends do! They fight, and at some points they stop talking, but that doesn't stop them from being friends!"

"I still don't understand what made you think that if you were to go out with Ino that it would all stop."

Sasuke paused. He stepped closer to Sakura.

"You said that the only reason that Ino was doing this was because she likes me. So I asked her out."

"That's why?"

Sasuke nodded. He noticed tears coming from Sakura's eyes. She must have been crying during their whole fight.

"I didn't actually mean for you to do it."

"I know. But I couldn't stand to see you being judged like that. Some of it was just too disturbing."

Sakura laughed.

Sasuke held out his arms and Sakura entered them.

They stood in silence enjoying each other's presence.

"I'm not letting you do this anymore." Sakura said.

"But if I dump her then she'll go back to before."

"Not if she gets another crush."

Sasuke gave her a questioning look.

"Did you know we've got a new kid in our school?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Now he knew what she was talking about.

"Sasuke, I think you should make friends with him."

Sasuke nodded.

They spent the rest of their night working on homework. Together. They also worked on their 'brilliant' plan.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Sakura said leaving Sasuke's house.

Before she left Sakura gave Sasuke one last hug.

–_click--_

Sakura returned back home and went to bed.

**---------------------------------------------------The Next Day-------------------------------------------------**

Sasuke took Sakura to school that day. Of course you can imagine what Ino had to say about this.

"What the hell is _she_ doing here?!"

Sakura was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Our moms made us ride together." Sasuke said.

Ino was boiling hot smoke every which way. When she talked her teeth were clenched together.

"Okay. Well then, _Sakura_, why don't you move to the _back_ seat so that I can sit next to my _boyfriend._"

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't realize you two were going out!" Sakura said.

Sasuke tried to hold back a laugh. Ino nodded, and gave Sakura this superior "yeah, I know. So move or else bitch." look.

Sakura grabbed her stuff and got out of the car.

"My apologies, _your highness_." Sakura said, with a little bow to Ino.

Ino rolled her eyes and scoffed at Sakura.

"Yeah, you better be." Ino said and pushed past Sakura and sat down next to Sasuke. Sakura made a face to the back of Ino's head, and sat down in the back seat.

The car ride was silent.

When arriving at the school, Sakura immediately jumped out of the car and joined her friends.

Sasuke and Ino walked in together of course, and met up with Ino's friends. Not only could Sasuke not talk to Sakura, Ino told him to dump his guy friends too.

Sakura was at her locker when she finally saw the new kid. Conveniently enough, Sasuke happened to be walking by.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked over at who had called his name.

Sakura made a head motion over to the boy walked down the hallway just in front of Sasuke. Sasuke made a 'him?' with his mouth. Sakura nodded.

Sasuke walked over to him.

"Heh."

The boy looked up from his schedule.

"Hi?"

"Uchiha, Sasuke. You're new aren't you?"

The boy nodded.

"Thought so."

The boy stood there.

"Do you happen to know where room 714 is?"

Sasuke looked at the guy's schedule.

"Hey, you pretty much have the same schedule as me. I'll take you there."

"Thanks!"

"What's your name by the way?" Sasuke asked.

"Choji."

Sasuke and Choji started walking off. Before they became out of sight Sakura saw Sasuke turn around and give her a thumbs up.

Sakura smiled.

Plan A in action.

**A:N/ So, what did you think. I know, not that long at all. Sorry it's taking me so long to update and finish this story. When summer comes the chapters will get longer. Promise. Well you know the drill. Read. And more importantly, review! **

**Happy Valentines Day! ❤**


	17. Chapter 17

**A:N/ You'll be happy to know that I've decided to try to update this story at least once every other week. Key word there is **_**try**_**. I'm also going to be **_**trying**_ **to make longer chapters. So here you go!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 17 - New Friends**

**LUNCH:**

"Guys, I'd like you all to meet Choji." Sasuke said with Choji standing beside him.

People greeted him in a sort of friendly way. Sasuke sat down next to Ino, while Choji took refuse next to Sasuke. Sasuke thinks that Ino will like him, he's a pretty funny guy. Today is the most he's smirked ever. Well, excluding the days he's with Sakura.

"So Choji, where are you from?" Ino asked him.

"Sound."

People nodded their heads.

"Hey Sasuke, do you have an extra quarter? I don't seem to have enough for a twinkie." Ino asked with a puppy dog look.

–giggle–giggle–giggle–giggle–

People looked over at Choji.

"What's so funny?" Ino asked him.

Choji just kind of waved it off. Then people started urging him on to tell. So he did.

"Back in Sound one day I was fighting with my friend Tyran about my one dollar bill. He wanted to look at it, something about finding a spider. I told him no then said 'you'll rip it into quarters."

Ino started to giggle a little bit too and Choji's face seemed to brighten up.

" It took me a while to figure it out, but when I got it we had this really big laughing fit."

Ino started to pound the table, and other people around the table started smirking or giggling too. Even Sasuke. It took Ino the whole lunch to stop laughing, and even then she wasn't done.

After lunch Sasuke, Choji and Ino walked to class together. They had the last few the same.

Sasuke could tell that Choji was growing on Ino fast. I mean how couldn't she? Sure he wasn't the **best** looking guy around, but he had the greatest personality. He made you laugh. Even if you didn't feel like. Sasuke like where this was going, and what it's going to.

Sakura would occasionally see Ino and Choji in the hall ways together on the next couple of days. Sasuke was sometimes lingering behind them. When they got ahead far enough Sasuke would sneak over to Sakura and talk with her a bit. Tell her how it's going, pretty good actually, and they'd do a little catching up. When the bell wrung for the next period they'd quickly rush to their classes. The thing for Sasuke was that Ino wouldn't even ask him why he was late. She actually doesn't really talk to him much any more after he introduced Choji to her.

Personally Sasuke thought they made a good couple. If you can make Ino Yamanka smile without buying her cloths, then you know it's meant to be. So, Choji was in the ball park.

**Monday-A week before Valentines Day:**

Sasuke was over at Sakura's house. Her mom was out shopping and well, her dad was still on a business trip. They decided to work together on their chemistry home work. Kind of ironic that some _'chemistry'_ did happen.

"So Sasuke, how's the whole Ino Choji thing going?" Sakura asked.

"Great. I haven't talked with her for two weeks now." Sasuke said.

He'd already finished his homework, so was just kind of walking around Sakura's room to see how's changed. Nothing much though.

"Well that's good." Sakura said. Although her voice seemed kind of bland.

Sasuke wondered why.

"You don't seem very happy about it."

"No, it's not that. It's this freaking question. I don't get it. I've been starting at it for the past 30 minutes."

Sasuke walked over to Sakura and knelt down next to her, but sort of behind her. He look over her shoulder first at the book, then at her. He cleared his throat. Then he looked down at her paper. He noticed that she was comparing the wrong ingredients. He put his finger on the two ingredients that she was supposed to be comparing.

"You're comparing the wrong ingredients." he said.

"Ohhh!! That could make a difference."

Sakura figured out her last problem. It was one of the easier ones too.

"Thanks Sasuke." she said, then lifting up her head towards his.

They noticed how close they were, but didn't move. Their eyes seemed to drag them both in closer to each other and soon they felt the other's forehead against their own. They finished off the space by locking their lips together.

_–click–_

Sakura dropped her pencil from her hand and brought it up to the back of Sasuke's head. Sasuke wrapped his arms around her waist. Pretty soon he brought one up to her hair and started messing with it. They soon fell down on the ground both on their sides. They took occasional breaks to get air. Whenever their eyes met, they started kissing again like it was their first time. Sasuke would move his hand up and down Sakura's back, messaging her in a kind of a way. Sakura would twist her finger around Sasuke's hair, then untwist it, but then twist it again. They stopped before it got to far. Then just laid there staring into each other's eyes again. Both were blushing. Sakura still had her hands tangled in Sasuke's hair, and Sasuke still held Sakura close to him. Realization hit them. They quickly sat up and broke their gaze.

"I've...um...got to go finish up some homework." Sasuke said standing up.

"I have to go...um...you know...milk the cows." Sakura said, staring out the window, then looking down at her feet.

Sasuke walking quickly out of her room.

The fact that Sasuke had already told Sakura about his finished homework, and that Sakura lived in town so couldn't own any cows, made this moment even more awkward for them. Maybe it won't be by tomorrow?

**Tuesday- A Week before Valentines Day:**

"Sakura?"

"Hm?" Sakura returned getting her chemistry book out of her locker. She took a good long look at the cover then shook her head and closed her locker to look at Tenten.

"Is there something wrong between you Sasuke. I mean just last week you guys were talking again. Is Ino not hanging out with Choji anymore?"

"What? Oh, no, Ino is still hanging out with Choji." Sakura said in a kind of dazed voice.

"Then, what? You guys didn't get into **another** fight did you?"

"Um, no." she responded in 'why would we get into another fight' voice.

"Okay." Tenten said unsurely. "Ready for chemistry class?"

"Yeah!" Sakura said, blushing at the thought of chemistry.

"Why are you blushing?"

"Um...I haven't you ever noticed...how...um...hot it gets in school?" Sakura said putting her free hand on the side of her head.

"No."

Sakura nervously giggled like an 'oh God, how do I get out of this one?'

"Whelp, better get to chemistry! Don't want to be late, now do we!?" Sakura walked quickly past Tenten and towards the chemistry room.

Tenten shook her head at her friends insanity. She turned around quickly and started walking towards class. Of course her head was in the clouds so she didn't see anybody coming towards her and ran right into him. Tenten stubbled back a few steps, but didn't fall.

"Sorry." she mumbled.

No one replied. Tenten looked up to see who she had run into. Hyuuga, Neji.

"Oh, Neji." she said abruptly, feeling a blush emerging onto her face.

"Hey...Tenten."

They stood in awkward silence, neither moving to their assigned classes.

–_bring–bring–bring–bring– _1st signal bell

"Well, I'd, I'd better get going now. Don't want to be late for chemistry." Tenten said in a strained voice starting to walk off.

"Wait...um...Tenten."

Tenten stopped walking and slowly turned around.

"Yeah?"

"There's...um...that one...dance you know. Next week." Neji said avoiding her gaze.

"Oh, yeah. I, a, almost forgot."

"Do, you..."

"No."

"Oh, so, you're going...right?"

"Yeah. Planning on it." Tenten quickly answered.

"What if..we were...to, you know, um, go...to-together?"

Tenten's perked up a little bit and she knew that her blush just spread to all over her face. Not one pale spot left.

"Yeah. I'd, like that." Tenten smiled a bit and so did Neji.

"All right."

–_bring–bring–bring–bring– _2nd bell for class.

Tenten and Neji ran away without another word to each other.

**Tuesday- A Week before Valentines Day**

"Sasuke, can I talk to you?"

This must be it. He hasn't had any contact with Ino for the past three weeks. She seems to spend every waking hour with him. Of course Choji felt kind of guilty. I mean, Ino was his friend's girl friend. Sasuke had to keep telling him that it was okay.

"Yeah, what about?" Sasuke asked closing his locker from getting his chemistry book out. He got nervous every time he saw this book now.

"About us."

"Oh?"

"Well, I've been spending so much time with Choji."

"Yeah, so I've noticed." Sasuke said trying to egg her on to get to the point.

"I think we should break up." Ino said.

"Yeah. That would be a good thing. Since he's already asked you to the dance."

Ino looked surprised.

"How did you know!?"

Sasuke smiled.

"He asked me first. I knew you were probably going to end it soon, with all the time you spend with him. It is pretty obvious that you like him."

Ino blushed.

"Well, I guess everything turned out for the best. Now you and Sakura can go together."

Sasuke smiled faded.

"What...do you mean?"

"You said it was obvious that I like Choji. It's even more obvious that you and Sakura can't **live** without each other. You've been a wreck ever since I said that you couldn't talk to her anymore. But then when I started hanging out with Choji, you and Sakura started talking again. Your mood really changed."

"Wait, you knew I was talking to Sakura again."

"Well, yeah. I'm not that dense Sasuke."

"You didn't say anything about it."

"I like Choji now Sasuke. Get over it." Ino said giving him the hand and turning away from him.

Sasuke smiled. Ino turned back to him and started laughing.

–_bring–bring–bring–bring– _

"Ope, time for English! See you later Sasuke, good luck!" Ino said giving Sasuke a little wink.

Sasuke did a little sigh of relief.

'_Now, how to ask her.'_

**After School-**

"See you later Hinata!" Sakura yelled.

Sasuke and her had resumed their daily routine of Sasuke taking her home. Awkward today? Probably. It was this morning. Probably the quietest car ride they've ever had together.

Sasuke was waiting for Sakura when she arrived, the car already started.

"You ready?" he asked as soon as she had buckled her seat belt.

"Yep." She said, then turned her head towards the window to watch the scenery go by.

After awhile Sasuke finally broke the silence.

"So,"

Sakura turned to look at him.

"Ino dumped me today."

Sakura's eyes widened. A smile spread across her face and she practically screamed with joy.

"Really!!??"

"Mmhm" he said nodding.

"Yes! It worked!" Sakura through her hands up in the air, almost hitting her hands on the roof of the car.

"Yeah, so I was thinking, if you already don't..." Sasuke said slowly.

Sakura's smile slowly disappeared from her face, and her hands descended from the air. Red took over her face, and her stomach started hurting.

"you...we...could, um. Yeah, um...never mind." Sasuke stumbled taking his right hand and running it through his hair.

Sasuke pulled up to Sakura's driveway. He walked her to the door, both in silence, and both blushing. And Sasuke keeping his eyes at his feet.

"I'll think about it." Sakura said to him. His head shot up.

His face was completely red. He had never blushed like this in his whole entire life.

They stood in awkward silence.

"Well...I'll...um, see you tomorrow then?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke cleared his voice. " Yeah." his eyes went back to his feet.

–_click– _

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Sasuke." Sakura said, opening the door and walking in.

Both did a sigh of relief. Sasuke walked slowly back to his car, and Sakura walked to her room.

Sakura's stomach hurt so much that night. She didn't even eat dinner, afraid that she would puke up what ever she put into her stomach. Her mother was worried of course, but didn't say much to her. Sakura wasn't very talkative this night either. While she was doing her homework she wasn't even concentrating on it. She only had one thing on her mind. What was she going to tell Sasuke?

'_I've got plenty of time. The dance isn't until next Friday. But I don't know how much more of this stomach business I can take! What is going on this year!?'_

Sakura barely got any sleep last night. She kept waking up. Every time she went back to sleep she had the same dream.

_**Sakura is at her locker. She opens it and a note falls out. **_

_**Meet me outside in the courtyard.**_

_**Love,**_

_**your Secret Admirer **_

"_**It's raining out there though." **_

_**Sakura thought about it for awhile.**_

"_**Go, or not." **_

_**Sakura looked out a nearby window. Not raining ALL too hard.**_

"_**Go."**_

_**Sakura walked out to the courtyard and underneath a Cherry Blossom tree. When she arrived there she saw someone leaning against it.**_

'_**Who's that?'**_

_**The figure stood up and started walking toward her. He grasped her into his arms. Sakura was taken back by this action, but felt comfortable there still. The figure backed away. Now Sakura saw. He had onyx eyes.**_

Sakura awoke for the seventh time. This time though she stayed awake due to the fact that she had to get ready for school. Her stomach was still bothering her. Not because she was nervous though.

She's figured out her answer.

**A:N/ Ha! Did you enjoy the chapter? Did you get the whole chemistry thing? I didn't mean for that to happen, I just typed the word and I was like: "Heh. Chemistry." You know because their doing chemistry homework and some chemistry happens between them?! You get it? You don't have to. I just found that ironic in a funny sort of way. Well, you know the routine. R&R! **

**By the way, if you enjoy this story, I've started another one. This one is based on a true story that is, or shall I say was, happening to me. The guy is moving away now. You'll understand if you read the story. Or if you read the AN at the bottom. But I'm just posting the first chapter. I'll continue it when I finish this one. So far only one person has reviewed it. A couple people have put on their alert list, but it helps me more if people leave messages on my stories. If no one else reviews it, I might not continue. So, if want to go check that out; go ahead! Here's the title: Messages Through A Bottle. If want to take a look at it, be my guest! **

**For now: R&R!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A:N/ Hello again! Thanks to all of you who have reviewed this story and my new one! Well, I've kept my promise so far. Hopefully you'll like this chapter. I bet you will! (Heheheheh)**

**Okay well, on with the...fanfiction!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 18 - Valentine's Day Dance**

Sakura knew exactly what she was going to tell Sasuke. IN homeroom Sasuke and Sakura sat next to each other as per usual. Sakura kept on fidgeting with her pen deciding when she would tell him.

"Sakura?" Sakura dropped her pen and looked straight ahead. But when no one was in front of her she guessed that it had to be Sasuke talking ot her. She looked over at him. 

"Is something bothering you?" he asked her. 

Sakura pondered on the question. Should she tell him now? Or wait a little bit?

Now. 

"Um...well yeah."

Sasuke nodded he figured what it could e, so he looked away from her. 

Sakura bit her lip.

"Sasuke!" she ubruptle said. 

Sasuke immediately turned toward her.

"Um...about...about..."

"Yesterday?" he put in.

"Yeah."

Sasuke looked down, then back at her.

"You can say no, it was stupid for me to ask."

"No!" Sakura said immediately. "I want to go with you!"

Sakura had been blushing for awhile now, Sasuke had just started.

"What?" he asked.

"I-I want to...go to the...dance...with you." Sakura said. 

After awhile of taking in what Sakura had said Sasuke finally smiled.

"Finally!" the whole class shouted. 

After Sakura had shouted"No!" the whole class had been tuned into their conversation. Of course Sasuke and Sakura had been totally clueless as to their existence there.

Both of their blushes deepened greatly.

All of their friends had found out about before they even had a chance to tell them. Of course it's completely blatant as to who told them all. 

Yeah it was awkward for Sasuke and Sakura at the beginning of the day. As it went on though, they became more used to the fact. What they couldn't get used to was people calling them a couple. Which, of course, wasn't true. They were always telling people they were just going as friends. Which, in their minds, was true. In real life thought, not so much. But Sasuke also wished Sakura could have looked at it that way. Them. A couple.

**AT LUNCH:**

"So Sak, heard the big news!" Tenten said, nudging her friend. 

Sakura smiled and shrugged. It really didn't seem as much of a big deal now. Why had she been so nervous before? It wasn't like Sasuke was asking her out on a date. They probably would've shown up together any ways, even if they hadn't descussed outright.

"Yeah. But just as friends." Tenten rolled her eyes.

"Sure. 'Just friends'." she said making air quotes with her fingers around "just friends." 

Sakura gave her a 'what's-all-""-this-about-about-because-it's-crap-to-go-like-""-this-suggesting-I'm-lying-but-I'm-not look. Tenten smiled then she turned on Hinata as her next victim. 

"So Hinata, has Naruto asked you to the dance yet?" 

Hinata blushed, then shook her head no. Tenten patted her firend on the back.

"Don't worry, he'll ask eventually. Don't forget, this is **Naruto** we're talking about. Youjust have to give him some extra time."

Hinata didn't respond.

Continuing with her rounds, Tenten then targeted Temari.

"So Temari, any date for you yet?"

"Eh. Still waiting. But hey, who really cares?" Temari said breakinga small peice of bread off then eating it.

Tenten smiled again. "So Shika hasn't asked you either. Huh, whou woulda thought, him being the big genius at the table."

That was it. Tenten no longer had anyone to criticize. Then it dawned on Sakura.

"Hey Tenten, what about you? Do you have a date?" Tenten blushed.

"Um, no. No-nobody has asked me yet." Tenten hid her face in her tray.

Not literally, she just hung her head down really low so taht they couldn't see her blush. Sakura smiled.

"Well I wonder why Neji hasn't asked you yet." Sakura winked at Hinata and Temari. 

They both began to smile.

"Actually Neji already has a date." Hinata said.

Everyone looked over at her, Tenten in shock.

How could she know? Wait. Think. They live in the same house.

"Yeah, her name is Masako, I think. He brings so many home it's hard to remember." Hinata said with a shurg.

Tenten's mouth dropped

"That's impossible! He asked me!" Tenten shouthed to ehr friends.

The three of them started to lasugh. Tenten looked at them blankly.

"What's so funny?" she asked. 

Sakura replied, "We all already knew that." 

"How?"

"Well let's see here, Hinata **lives** with the guy," Tenten did a shrug and a oh-yeah-that's-true face, "and I live next to one of his best friends. I wonder too." she finished.

Tenten thought for a moment.

"What about Temari though?"

"Well Hinata probably told her." sakura said.

Hinata shook her head no. the all looked at Temari. 

She lifted up her hand and started examining her nails. "I've got my resources." she said.

The girls all laughed.

"Okay, so even if half of us don't have a date," Hinata and Temari glared at Tenten, "we should all go and buy our dresses tonight. How about after school?" 

The three other girls all looked at each other and started nodding their heads. Then they all turned to Tenten and said, "Perfect!" "Sounds good!" "Works for me!"

Tenten smiled. She did that a lot at lunch today.

**SCIENCE-HINATA:**

Guess what! All hope wasn't lost for Hinata and Temari! Hinata had science with Naruto while Temari had history with Shika!

"Okay class, today we're going to be examining frog cells. I will be assigning you your partners, so no groaning if you don't like the partner you get. It's rude. You all need to make more friends. Hanging in your little cliques theses days. Bad habits. Anyway, continuing with the lesson. You will receiving a 30 paged packet that...hm, let's see...Hinata! Will you please come pass these out to the students?"

Hinata blushed. She stood up from her chair and walked to the front of the room to receive the packets. The pile was like a mile high! (Hyperbole) It was tall and heavy though. What do yo expect, there's 28 students in her science class. If each student has thirty pages, that means that Hinata is holding 840 pages. (Sorry about the math problem there, thought it would sound cool. Makes me feel smart.) It was sort of difficult to pass them out. Of course some people made it easy for her and just grabbed them themselves so she wouldn't have to balance the stack with one hand. Only the snotty people who didn't want to get a paper cut made her hand them the packet. At one point she almost dropped the pile, but she was standing next to Naruto and he grabbed hold of the stack and helped her rebalance it again.

"Thanks." she said, blushing. Naruto also started blushing, but Hinata didn't see it. She was too afraid to look at him.

"Okay, as Hinata passes those out I will start to list off the partners."

Naruto started listening to the teacher. For once.

"_If Hinata and I get to be partners, then I finally can ask her."_

"Masako and Michiko, Akiko and Sean, Bethany and Mike, Mai and Naru, John and Stephanie, Rae and Mallory, Bailey and Lincoln, Tyler and Dalton, Anna and Sarah, Kati and Cheyenne, Kyle and Jason..."

"_He's almost done, maybe we will get to be partners!"_

"Ami and Amy..."

"_Yes!"_

"Naruto and Hinata. Get to work."

Partners started to find partners. Then they started arguing who was going to go get the cells to study. Naruto found Hinata who was standing still at her sitting area, blushing. 

"I'll go get the cells." Naruto said. Hinata nodded, coming out of her trance.

While Naruto was doing that, Hinata went and got the microscope, bringing it to a place to plug it in.

Naruto came over a little afterwards. Neither said anything. Hinata started setting up the microscope. Naruto gave her the cells and she placed them underneath the lense. She started adjusting it, trying to find something interesting to look at.

"Uh, Hinata, can I ask you something?"

Hinata started messing with it lense again before answering, keeping her eyes in the eye sockets.

"Um...s-sure, N-naruto." she answered. 

Naruto sighed of relief. He was doing good so far.

"Yeah, so about next week. You don't have a date yet do you?"

Hinata's blush deepened.

"N-n-n-n-no." she said, concentrating even more on the cells.

"Okay. Well..." Naruto paused. " Would you want to...oh, I don't know, go with me?"

Hinata gasped. She stopped messing with the knobs and stood up straight, only coming up to the tip of Naruto's chin. She noticed that he also was blushing.

"S-sure N-naruto." she said, with a little half smile.

Apparently Naruto had been holding his breath and let it all out at once. It smelled of ramen. Go figure.

"Great! Now, let's start working." 

Maybe he hadn't noticed Hinata was working before?

Hinata went back to her adjusting. Finally she found what she was looking for.

"Naruto, come look at this!" she said.

Naruto walked over and put his eyes into the sockets.

**HISTORY- TEMARI:**

"Alright class, today we're going to try a new method of studying. Here's what will happen. You're going to stay in the spots your in now. You'll read section three while also taking notes. I'll give you till 30 after. Start."

The class immediately started reading and writing. Pencils were heard all over the room scratching down notes from the reading.

"Okay, times up."

The class stopped their reading and note taking. The class then stared up at their teacher.

"Now, we're going to compare notes. First you're going to pass your notes to the person on your right. Do so now."

The students obeyed. Shika was sitting to the left of Temari, so she was getting his notes. After the noise of rustling papers was done the teacher continued.

"Now, you're going to go over this person's notes and see if they missed anything that you think should be on there. The only thing is, you can't use your book so this is also a way of studying this chapter for the up coming test. Now get started have five minutes."

The class started working.

Temari looked down at Shika's paper and saw something besides notes written down on his paper**s**.

'_Go to the dance with me?'_

Temari blushed. She sat there staring at the question for the whole five minutes. Not even looking at his notes.

"Okay, times up, hand back the notes."

The owners got their notes back, and Shika looked surprised to see that Temari didn't respond back.

"Now, do the same thing only this time pass your paper to the left."

The class did so and redid what they had already done only this time on some else's paper.

Shika looked down at Temari's paper and saw a little 'yes' written in the top right hand corner.

**AFTER SCHOOL- MALL:**

"Okay, so we all have dates now!" Tenten shouted.

The four of them walked into the prom dresses store and started searching around. 

Tenten found a baby blue dress with no straps. It reached down to her knees and had a small bow preattached to the left waist area.

Hinata found a dark purple dress with spaghetti straps reaching down to her knees. The neck was really low cut so there was white sparkly lace covering the bare part. The top part of the dress was all sparkly and the bottom was just a plain purple, making it seem like just a shirt and skirt.

Temari got a dark green spaghetti strapped dress. The top part of the dress was a lighter green, getting darker as the dress went down. The front part of the dress was at Temari's knees, but got longer as it headed toward the back of the dress. The longest part reached to just above Temari's ankles. The ends of the dress looked as though Temari had taken a pair of scissors to it and did a very bad job on cutting straight lines. 

Sakura got a plain read dress. It also had spaghetti straps. The left part of the dress was shorter than the right. As you progressed across the dress would get longer. The longest part reached about a two inches past Sakura's knee. 

"Great! Now we all have our dates **and** dresses! Hurray!" Tenten shouted out for the whole world to hear.

The four of them laughed. And started to exit the mall.

"Hey Sakura, I just thought of something. Have you heard from your secret admirer lately?"

"Yeah, I just got something from him today." Sakura said.

"What song did he choose this time?"

"Um, I think it's called Valentine. It's written by Jim Brickman. The strange thing is, he just left me this note." Sakura pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket that had been folded. 

'_**Title: Valentine**_

_**By Jim Brickman**_

_**You'll know it when you hear it.'**_

"Okay, now that's weird." Temari stated.

The group went their separate ways. When Sakura got home she put her dress away then sat on her bed. Just sat.

'_What does he mean by that? "I'll know it when you hear it?" He didn't leave a track for me. How will I know?'_

That's all Sakura thought about that night. When will she finally get to meet her secret admirer? She wished he had asked her to the dance. A lot.

**FRIDAY- THE DAY OF THE VALENTINE'S DAY DANCE:**

Everyone had been talking about the dance all day long. Couples making arrangements when to pick up their dates or friends with dates making arrangements for a meeting spot. Sakura and Sasuke though didn't talk much of it. They already knew their plans. Picked up at 6:45, drive over. End of discussion. But they were both still excited. Yes, Sasuke excited. Sakura might not see it this way, but Sasuke did. This was pretty much their first date and their not even dating!

When school was over people rushed out to go home, get something quick to eat then start getting ready.

**6:45**

_ding dong_

"Sakurrrraaaa! Sasuke is here!" Sakura's mom called, running to the door.

"Just a sec!" Sakura hollered back.

Her mom opened the door for Sasuke and let him in.

"Good evening Mrs. Haruno." Sasuke said bowing.

"No formality, you're practically my son-in-law, call me mom!" she said cheerfully.

Sasuke blushed madly and stood upright like a rod.

Sakura came down the stairs all ready to go. Sasuke started to blush even more. 

"Oh! Sakura you look beautiful! Here, I **must** get a picture with you two together!" Mom said pulling out a camera from behind her. 

"I thought you only took pictures for prom?" Sakura asked.

"Doesn't matter, you'll be wearing a different dress for prom, so I need to take one with you in this one! Smile! You're not leaving till you do!"

Sakura shook her head and headed for the door, her mom was embarrassing herself too much. 

"Come on Sasuke, let's go." Sakura said.

Sasuke and Sakura walked out.

"I will get a picture you two!" Mom yelled out as Sakura stepped into Sasuke's car.

Then they left.

"Oh, I'll get a picture all right. Even it's the last thing I do." Mom smiled maliciously. 

**Dance:**

Sasuke and Sakura had gotten trapped in traffic so when they arrived all of their friends were waiting for them.

"Sakura, what took you so long? You guys have missed the first three songs." Temari asked.

Sakura shrugged.

"Traffic. Then we couldn't find a parking spot."

Her friends nodded.

Then the Chicken Dance turned on.

Everyone screamed in joy, the girls (except Hinata) pulled their dates and 'not dates' out onto the dance floor to join in the fun. After that was the Y.M.C.A. Then came on a slow song. Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other awkwardly. Should they dance together or will people get the wrong idea.

"Dance? As...friends?" Sakura asked him.

Sasuke bowed, then extended his right hand for Sakura to grab, which she did. Sakura put her right hand around Sasuke's neck, and entangled her left with his right. While Sasuke put his left hand around Sakura's waist. They swayed side to side, weirdly keeping the beat to the song.

_**To Where You Are**_

_**by Josh Groban**_

_**Sasuke:  
**__Who can for certain?  
__Maybe you're still here.  
__I feel you all around me,  
__your memory's so clear._

_Deep in the stillness,  
__I can hear you speak.  
__You're still an inspiration.  
__Can it be that you are my for ever love,  
__and you are watching over me from up above?_

_**Chorus- Sasuke:  
**__Fly me up to where you are  
__beyond the distant star  
__I wish upon tonight to see you smile,  
__if only for a while to know you're there.  
__A breath away's not far to where you are._

_**Sakura:  
**__Are you gently sleeping here inside my dream?  
__And isn't faith believing all power can't be seen?  
__As my heart holds you just on beat away,  
__I cherish all you gave me eve'ry day._

'_Cause you are my forever love  
__watching me from up above.  
__And I believe that angles breathe  
__and that love will live on and never leave._

_**Chorus- both:  
**__Fly me up to where you are  
__beyond the distant star  
__I wish upon tonight to see you smile,  
__if only for a while to know you're there.  
__A breath away's not far to where you are._

_I know you're there.  
__A breath away's  
__not far to where you are._

When the song ended Sakura and Sasuke separated. 

A few songs had gone by and Sasuke and Sakura had gotten separated. Sakura was hanging out with her friends while Sasuke hung out with his own. Then all of a sudden the lights started to dim a lot. It was almost near pitch black when the DJ explained.

"There has been a request, the house lights will be going completely down. Don't try anything funny, otherwise you'll be stuck in high school forever."

Some students laughed, while others looked at their friends or dates confused. Couple quickly got together so as not to dance with the wrong person. The house lights went completely down, and then a small spotlight got turned on, and started searching the students. 

"Pink, pink, pink." the DJ was saying to himself. "There."

The spotlight stopped on Sakura, and she froze blushing extremely.

"There you go Romeo, find your Juliet." the DJ said into the microphone.

Sakura stood still wondering what in the world was this guy talking about. 

The song started.

_**Valentine**_

_**by Jim Brickman  
**__If there were no words,  
__no way to speak,  
__I would still hear you._

Suddenly a black gloved hand appeared in front of her from the pool of darkness. Sakura looked up from the hand into the eyes of its beholder. The guy's upper face was completely covered by a mask. Sakura raised her hands to her face wondering what was going on. This wasn't a masquerade. 

_And even if the sun refused to shine,  
__even if romance ran out of rhyme,  
__you would still have my heart until the end of time._

Sakura slowly let out her right hand placing it into the gloved one. The hand brought her closer to the body and the spotlight disappeared. The hand she had grabbed onto brought her right hand to around his next, putting his around her waist. His right hand found her left and entwined the two. 

_You're all I need,  
__my love,  
__my Valentine._

They started swaying. Sakura found herself looking up trying to see if she could even find the face of the guy in front of her, let alone define the features as who it is.

_All of my life,  
__I have been waiting for  
__all you give to me.  
__You've opened my eyes  
__and shown me how to love unselfishly._

The brought her even closer to him than they already were. Sakura's heart was beating like a birds, just not fast enough that it would kill her.

_I've dreamed of this a thousand times before,  
__but in my dreams I couldn't love you more.  
__I will give you my heart until the end of time._

_You're all I need,  
__my love,  
__my Valentine._

That's when it her. Valentine. This is the song that her secret admirer had been talking about. **This was** her secret admirer! Sakura felt the blush already there replaced with an even bigger one. Why didn't he just show himself to her? Why all the secrecy? For some mysterious reason then, Sakura laid her head on the guy's chest, both now feeling the complete warmth of the other.

_And even if the sun refused to shine,  
__even if romance ran out of rhyme,  
__you would still have my heart until the end of time._

'_Cause all I need is you,  
__my Valentine._

_You're all I need,  
__my love,  
__my Valentine._

Then he pulled away. Took her hand and kissed it. Then left her standing there. When the house lights had turned back on her secret admirer had already disappeared into the crowd of couples.

Temari, Tenten, and Hinata all three ran over to Sakura who stood dazed in her spot. 

"Sakura! What happened? Who was that?" Tenten asked.

Sakura didn't respond.

"Sakura?"

Her eyes were glazed over. She didn't realized what was happening around her.

"Sakura!"

She jumped.

"What?"

"Who was that?" Tenten asked again.

"I-I. That song. It was **the **song." Sakura said.

Tenten looked at her strangely.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tenten, remember the note her admirer had given her. _"You'll know it when you hear it."_

Tenten thought for a moment. Then shrugged.

"I think she just heard it." Hinata finished.

Tenten's eyes opened wide, and her mouth dropped.

They took Sakura over to where the boys were, by the punch table.

"Hey. You guys stuck out there in the dark?" Naruto asked.

The girls didn't respond.

"Hey Sakura, what's up with you?" Sasuke asked her looking concerned.

"I-I, just danced with my admirer." she said then looking up into Sasuke's eyes.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

**A:N/ Ha! Excellent chapter if I do say so myself! 14 pages long! Hurray! Well I hope you guys enjoy this one! What did you think? Well I thought it was pretty cute what Sakura's secret admirer did. He's so romantic! (You all know who he is right? I would've sworn I revealed it in a much earlier chapter.) Well I hope you guys review and all that fun stuff, which I know you will. Well I've calculated out the rest of the story and I came up with about 31 chapters in all. That's if I don't add anything away. I most likely won't take anything away. So you guys now know that there's going to be at least that many for the minimum. **

**frumpyrox:****That's exactly what I was going for! I hate the soap operay stories that over dramatizes everything in it. Those just get to be annoying. So congratulations! You've uncovered my writing style. Well part of it anyways, I like to mix it up sometimes.**

**R&R!**


	19. Chapter 19

**A:N/ Hi everybody! Sorry that I didn't do this sooner, but we had this really bad thunder storm with lightning and stuff. It caused our internet not to work anymore. (Dial up) After my dad went out to get it fixed he brought it back and then our whole computer wasn't working. Lucky for me my mom went out and bought a laptop because her own work one had also broken down. So here I am typing up the next chapter for "CRUSHES BETWEEN FRIENDS." Enjoy!!**

**Crushes Between Friends**

**Chapter 19 – Give You MY Heart**

'_I loved having her in my arms. I could tell she loved being in mine. But she doesn't know who I am. What if she says no though? It'll never be the same…'_

**SAKURA'S DREAM:**

_Sakura stood leaning on the bar of a school railing. She was waiting for Sasuke to come out and take her home. When he stepped out from the school, he looked awkward. To some extent it almost seemed as though he was about to puke. When he approached her he didn't look directly at her. _

"_Sasuke is something wrong?" she asked._

"_I-I have to tell you something." He said looking up at her. His face was red, yet looked a little pale._

"_Sasuke, you don't look too well. Maybe you're sick." _

_Sasuke didn't respond to that._

"_I. Sakura, I'm." he stopped._

_Sakura looked at him in worry. She grabbed his hands which were cold against hers. _

"_Is everything all right?" Sakura asked_

_He looked her straight in the eyes._

"_Sakura, I'm the secret admirer."_

_Sakura's hands went limp. Her hands started slipping out of his and Sasuke's bodily figure started slipping away into nothingness. _

Sakura awoke to the sound of a scratching noise on her window. She threw the covers off of her and saw a small tabby kitten sitting outside her window in the rain.

"Poor thing."



Sakura opened the window. The kitten quickly climbed into Sakura's room. She grabbed a spare blanket that was lying on her floor. She wrapped it around the shivering kitten and rubbed it dry. She carried the bundle of kitten back to her bed where she laid in thought.

'_What was that dream about? I can't remember a thing.'_

The next morning when Sakura awoke the kitten was still fast asleep in her arms. Sakura got up and put on a loose fitting shirt with black sweats, not caring at all this morning what she was wearing. She brushed her hair and teeth then went down stairs. Before leaving for school Sakura left out some torn up bread and milk mixed with water out for the kitten. When Sakura left the house Sasuke was already waiting for her in the driveway. They drove to school as usual. The day wasn't anything new. Sakura attended all her classes, received homework, took a few tests, and talked to her friends. No changes.

Sasuke's day was way different though. He couldn't stop thinking about the dance. Questions were constantly running threw his head. He couldn't stop thinking about her. When to tell her.

Everything was pretty much normal, excluding Sasuke's dilemmas, until after school.

Sasuke had told Sakura that he was going to be a little late because he needed to talk to a teacher after school. Sakura said she'd wait for him by the entrance. People left the school and she was still standing there against the railing. For some reason this felt oddly familiar to Sakura.

Finally Sasuke came walking out of the school looking quite pale. He walked up to her but didn't make direct eye contact.

"Hi Sasuke!" Sakura greeted. "You ready to go?"

Sasuke didn't reply, just walked up to her.

"Um, Sasuke? Hello, did you hear me?"

Sasuke looked up at her. His face was definitely pale, but he was blushing, was that even possible?

"Sakura I need to tell you something."

Sakura stopped smiling. This was really strange. Déjà vu strange. Why was this so familiar, could it do with her dream she had last night?

"What is it Sasuke?" she asked with sincerity in her voice.

"Sakura, I know who your secret admirer is." Sasuke seriously said.

Sakura's smile returned, yet there was still uneasiness.

"Really?! Who? Who is it Sasuke?"



Sasuke looked into Sakura's jade green eyes. The eyes that made his heart beat so fast that he couldn't bear it.

"It's me." he said, trying to keep eye contact with her.

Sakura felt her breath leave her. It was Sasuke?

"You're…"

"Yeah."

It hurt Sasuke that he could hear the disappointment in her voice when he told her.

Sakura didn't know what to say. She was shocked by this. The past things that had happened to them, well, she didn't really think much of them. She didn't want to. It would be too weird if her and Sasuke were to get together.

"Sakura, are you…okay?" he asked.

Sakura looked down at the ground.

"I, I have to go."

Sakura ran away from Sasuke, leaving him standing by the railing by himself, heartbroken.

**A:N/ Sorry about the shortness of this chapter. I combined two together, well sort of. If I hadn't done it this way then there would have been two really really short chapters! Don't want that now do we. Well yeah.**

**KYLE: Hi kyle!! how are you doing? I read your review about your little gf thing. That's kind of weird. You didn't do that on purpose did you? No, I don't think that you did. Or did you? Nah. ??. Anyways it's like super boring here. (remember not to mention where anybody lives) ((I dont want to get a weird stalker person that comes after me and tries to reap me and stuff.)) (((like prom night))) ((((i want to see that movie)))). Well, that's all for now.**

**Remember reviewers (& kyle) to R&R (that's read and review kyle;)**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Hello everybody! So as you can guess this means another chapter for "Crushes Between Friends"! Hurray!! Well, I might be combining a few more chapters together, and it's not because I want to get finished with this story. I love this story!! It's because I'm worried about too short of chapters. I hate to write super short chapters then wait forever to update on the next. So there probably won't be 31 chapters left, although that would be cool! So enough of my ramblings…on with the story! **

**Warning! There might be parts where the writing is on the cheesy side, but whatever. I thought it would sound **_**cool**_**. Heh. **_**Cool.**_

**Note: This is addressed to Kyle. Make sure you read the bottom part where I usually leave a note for you. **

**Note 2: REVIEWERS: Sasuke told Sakura on Friday. I don't think I mentioned a specific day, but if I don't mention this then you'll get confused.**

**Crushes Between Friends -**

**Chapter 20 - Final Words**

Sakura ran and ran from where she had left Sasuke. What was going on? Her heart was racing; she couldn't even think about her stomach, it hurt so much. Coincidentally, while she was running a big clash of thunder boomed of anger, lighting struck down on a heart, and rain poured tears of sorrow. Sakura kept running.

In front of a cherry blossom tree is where Sakura fell, out of exhaustion. She leaned up against the tree, and started crying with the rain. She brought her knees up to her chest and placed her arms on top, where she laid her head down and started shaking in the cold. She stayed there all night.

Around 4:34 Sakura had entered through her front door. Her mom's body was sitting in a chair with her head resting on the table and her right hand holding the phone. Sakura placed a blanket around her mother's shoulders and went to her room.

Sakura woke up to a quiet room around 12 o'clock noon. She slowly got up. She found the kitten she had helped lying next to her purring. When Sakura awoke, he licked her face. She smiled almost forgetting what had happened just yesterday.

Her mother was being nice and didn't ask her why she was out so late, for she could tell that Sakura was not in the best of moods. The only time she was happy was when Kent was around her, that's what she named her cat. Sakura only left the house to allow Kent a bathroom break. She didn't look over at his house; she didn't receive calls from his house. She barely even talked at all throughout the weekend. The most talking she did was to either herself or Kent.

On Monday when she returned to school, her mom brought her. She stayed away from Sasuke. She feared that if she were to only glance at him she would run off again, though she couldn't figure out why. She received a note from her secret admirer. Which she really couldn't call him that anymore because he was no longer a secret. He was Sasuke. Just like all the other ones he had given her, it was a song on a CD.

_**Elliott Yamin  
Wait for You **_

_**Verse 1**_

_I never felt nothing in the world like this before  
now I'm missing you  
& I'm wishing that you would come back through my door  
Why did you have to go? You could have let me know  
So now I'm all alone,  
Girl you could have stayed  
but you wouldn't give me a chance  
With you not around it's a little bit more then I can stand  
And all my tears they keep running down my face  
Why did you turn away?_

_**Bridge**__So why does your price make you run and hide?  
__Are you that afraid of me?  
__But I know it's a lie what you keep inside  
__This is not how you wanted to be_

_**Chorus**_

_So baby I will wait for you  
__Cause I don't know what else I can do  
__Don't tell me I ran out of time  
__If it takes the rest of my life  
__Baby I will wait for you  
__If you think I'm fine it just ain't true  
__I really need you in my life  
__No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you_

_**Verse 2**_

_It's been a long time since you called me  
__(How could you forget about me?)  
__You got me feeling crazy (crazy)  
__How can you walk away?  
__Everything stays the same  
__I just can't do it baby  
__What will it take to make you come back?  
__Girl I told you what it is & it just ain't like that  
__Why can't you look at me, you're still in love with me  
__Don't leave me crying._

_**Bridge**_

_Baby why can't we just start over again  
__Get it back to the way it was  
__If you give me a chance I can love you right  
__But you're telling me it won't be enough_

_**Chorus**_

_So baby I will wait for you  
__Cause I don't know what else I can do  
__Don't tell me I ran out of time  
__If it takes the rest of my life  
__Baby I will wait for you  
__If you think I'm fine it just ain't true  
__I really need you in my life  
__No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you_

_**Bridge**_

_So why does your pride make you run & hide  
__Are you that afraid of me?  
__But I know it's a lie what your keeping inside  
__That's not how you wanted to be  
__Baby I will wait fort you  
__Baby I will wait for you  
__If it's the last thing I do_

_**Chorus**_

_Baby I will wait for you  
__Cause I don't know what else I can do  
__Don't tell me I ran out of time  
__If it takes the rest of your life  
__Baby I will wait for you  
__If you think I'm fine it just ain't true  
I really need you in my life  
__No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you _

_I'll be waiting_

Sakura didn't know what to think after the song. So many things were going through her head. On one hand she didn't mind the idea of her and Sasuke being a couple, but, in turn, that scared her. On the other hand…well who cares what's on the other hand! Sasuke just ruined their friendship!

'Why did he have to go off and say that? It's his entire fault.'

Sakura began to walk around her room angrily thinking about the situation. She finally stopped and sat down on her bed. She looked around her room which held so many memories of her and Sasuke. Pictures of them together hung on her door and mirror. Her chemistry book sat next to her. Now she couldn't stop thinking about him. What the hell is wrong with her?

'Why did I tell her? I should have just kept to myself, and then this never would have happened.'

'Why did he have to tell me?'

'She won't even talk to me now.'

'What am I suppose to say?'

Sasuke looked out his window into Sakura's room. She was sitting on her bed with her head down. He could see a small tear fall from her eyes, and then she fell backwards on her bed with her hands on top of her forehead.

'I didn't want to hurt her.'

Sasuke walked away from the window and laid down on his bed and turned on the radio.

_**Simple Plan  
I Can Wait Forever**_

**_Verse 1_**

_You look so beautiful today.  
__When you're sitting there  
__It's hard for me to look away.  
__So I try to find the words that I could say.  
__I know distance doesn't matter  
__But you feel so far away  
__Every time I leave my heart turns grey.  
__And I want to come back home to see your face tonight._

And I can't lie

**Chorus**

_Cause I just can't take it_

_Another day without you with me  
__Is like a blade that cuts right through me.  
__But I can wait forever.  
__  
When you call my heart stops beating.  
__When you're gone it won't stop bleeding  
__But I can wait forever_

**Verse 2**_You look so beautiful today.  
__It's like every time I turn around I see your face.  
__The thing I miss the most is waking up next to you.  
__When I look into your eyes I wish that I could stay_

_And I can't lie  
__Every time I leave my heart turns grey.  
__And I want to come back home to see your face tonight._

**Chorus**

_Cause I just can't take it_

_Another day without you with me  
__Is like a blade that cuts right through me.  
__But I can wait forever._

_When you call my heart stops beating.  
__When you're gone it won't stop bleeding  
__But I can wait forever_

**Bridge**

_I know it feels like forever.  
__I guess that's just the price I've got to pay.  
__But when I come back home,  
__To feel your touch makes it better.  
__Until that day there's nothing else that I can do._

**Chorus**

_And I just can't take it_

_Another day without you with me  
__Is like a blade that cuts right through me.  
__But I can wait forever._

_When you call my heart stops beating.  
__When you're gone it won't stop bleeding  
__But I can wait forever_

Sasuke turned off his radio and sat in silence.

"I can't wait forever."

**NEXT DAY:**

Sakura was walking through the hallway to her biology class when she and Sasuke crossed paths for the first time since he told her. She looked straight ahead pretending to not notice him, while he was trying to get her attention. When they were passed each other Sasuke stopped walking and turned around and watched Sakura walk away.

"Sasuke-kun!" a preppy, whiny, annoying voice called out.

Sasuke turned back around and saw a girl with flowing golden blond hair. She was wearing a hot pink mini skirt with a white tube top.

The girl ran up to Sasuke and jumped on him locking her arms behind his neck.

"Oh Sasuke! I'm so glad we finally get to meet!"

Sasuke had no idea who this was, but she _was_ pretty cute.

When Sakura heard the scream she turned around and saw the girl pounce on Sasuke. She could feel herself start to breathe heavily; she started biting the side of her mouth and glaring at the two. Then she realized what she was doing, stopped immediately and turned away to go to biology.

**A:N/ So that's the end of chapter 19. Hope you all liked it. I was using up all my strength to type it; this was a pretty hard chapter. Sorry that it doesn't have much action in it. At least the songs are good though!! (little joke there) Not funny? Okay, well I try. Any who, I combined two chapter again, good thing too because then…well whatever I think you catch my drift.**

**KYLE: Hi Kyle!! Kyle, I'm not mad at you. But I can't believe you'd think I wouldn't like you or whatever, think you're weird. (from the words of A.) As long as you make me laugh, you're my friend. I'll still call you Kyle though, just because that's an awesome name! Ben is a cool name too. I've got a cousin Ben, he's younger than me, don't like him a lot though. Yeah, but I was always thinking "oh no! what if kyle thinks i'm a total FREAK OF NATURE!!" some people do think that of me. pisses me off. well, i'll just not talk to them. see how they like them apples. ha! sorry, but i'll still talk to you. so yeah. A. told us that you said hi, so I'm saying hi back! Yep. Oh, I forgot to ask you, but did you ever check out our profiles? Well you should do that, I left a message there for you if you haven't gone there yet. But if you've already seen it then this last part has been a COMPLETE waste of time. A. told me you broke up with your gf, and now you want her back. So good luck with that and stuff. Um, what else to say. Well JH is being a complete jerk, especially to A. Did she ever tell you he always calls her 'it' and 'that thing'. He's so rude, it disgusts me. That about does it I think, so TTYL!!**

**btw R&R!! **


	21. Chapter 21

**A:N/ So, this is the improved last chapter of Crushes between friends. The whole story is the same, but at the end of the original chapter is where I started the new part of the story. I guessing that you don't' want to read the whole chapter over again so I'll leave some noticeable blank space so yeah. Enjoy the ending!!**

**Crushes Between Friends –**

**Chapter 21 – Walk Away, Come Back to Me**

Sakura didn't know how to react to her reaction. What was going on with her? She doesn't even know who she is anymore. Things have just been all wrong in her life ever since Sasuke told her. She wished this just never would have happened, but for some reason she's glad that he fessed up about it though.

"Sasuke-kun, why aren't you paying attention to me?" the blonde girl whined.

Of course the reason that Sasuke wasn't paying attention to the freak next to him was because he was too busy watching Sakura walk away from him yet again.

'Please, just come back to me.'

Sasuke watched her disappear into the crowd of students until the very last pink strand of her hair was sightless.

"Sasuke-kun!!" came that freakishly whiny voice again, only this time she was doing a jumping motion.

Sasuke looked at the girl next to him. She was clinging on his left arm giving him a pouting look.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked her.

"Hehe (in a giggling, high pitched voice). Oh Sasuke-kun, you're so funny!" she said pushing her body closer to his.

Sasuke looked down at her with a 'what the hell do you think you're doing?' look on his face. Sasuke pulled his arm out of the girl's grasp and started to walk to class. The girl called after him, but he didn't pay attention. His mind was all on Sakura.

It was impossible for Sakura to concentrate during class. First of all, she had already gone over this stuff with Sasuke. They both liked to work ahead. The second, and really the _true_ reason why Sakura wasn't concentrating, was because she couldn't keep Sasuke out of her mind. In fact she could barely take her eyes off of him during class.

'Why is it that he has to look so cute when he works so hard? Wait, what am I thinking?'

Sasuke felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked straight up pretending to be looking at the teacher as he spoke. As he was doing so he took a side wards to the right of him where Sakura was sitting. He saw her looking in his direction, but just as he had seen her it was like she had also noticed that he noticed. Sakura bent back down over her notes and started writing again. Sasuke sighed then returned back to his work.

Sakura left quickly after class and Sasuke tried to follow, but by the time he had gotten out, Sakura was nowhere to be found.

'Crap, I think he saw me staring at him. Crap, crap, crap!'

Next class on Sakura's schedule was advanced language. Unlucky for her, Sasuke was also in that class. Along with chemistry after that, then history, and then home where his window was conveniently located right across from hers'. In all of these locations Sakura spent at least one minute watching Sasuke work until he would do his sideways glance causing Sakura to panic and turn away quickly.

After Sasuke had noticed Sakura staring at him while he was working on homework at his desk she didn't look again for the rest of the day. In fact she closed her curtains after awhile.

When her whole room was completely enclosed from outside viewers Sakura sat down on her bed. She grabbed at her hair pulling it backwards taking her body with her to fall onto the bed.

She laid there for a little bit then turned her head to the right, towards her night stand, where she saw a picture of her and Sasuke two summers ago when they went to the U.S. together to the state of California sitting in a black picture frame. In the picture, Sasuke was standing in the water with Sakura on his back. He had hold of her legs so she wouldn't fall backwards. The picture also showed a bucket, which Sakura was holding over Sasuke's head, with water pouring out of it onto Sasuke. That was one of Sakura's favorite summers ever.

As Sakura finished recollecting the memory she stood up with the frame still in her hand. She saw billions of other pictures of her and Sasuke on her walls, mirror, door, and posted on the cork board above her desk.

Sakura walked over to her desk and sat down in her chair. She zeroed in on one particular picture. It was when she and Sasuke had first met. They were each about three years old.

"_Sakura, I'd like you to meet my friend Mikoto and her son Sasuke. He's the same age as you."_

_Sakura was gripping at her mother's skirt look out from behind her. Standing behind the taller lady was a boy that looked like he really was three, just like her. He had the most interesting hair; she had never seen anybody with hair like that. How did he get it to stay sticking out in the back like that? His hair was a dark navy blue and his eyes were a deep onyx. Sakura soon found that if you stared into his eyes too long you would get lost in the pools of onyx._

"_Hello Sakura."_

_The woman that Sakura's mom called Mikoto was now kneeling down in front of Sakura. Sakura backed up a little and clung herself closer to her mom._

"_Sakura, don't be rude. Say hello to Mrs. Uchiha," her mother ordered._

_Mikoto gave Sakura a warm smile._

"_H-hello Mrs. Uchiha." _

"_You can call me Mikoto." she said then stood up. "Sasuke, why don't you and Sakura go out back and play?"_

_The boy stood still next to his mom, and Sakura didn't even move a millimeter away from her mom._

"_Come on Sakura, you'll be okay."_

_Sakura shook her head. The boy had his arms crossed, but just then a strand of his bangs had gotten in the way of his eye sight so he blew it out of the way. This action made Sakura's heart leap._

"_Come on Sakura. How 'bout Mikoto and I come out there with you for a little bit?"_

_Sakura's mom grabbed her hand and followed Mikoto and Sasuke out to the back yard. They helped them get off the porch, and then left them out there all alone._

_Sakura had her arms crossed behind her and she was rocking on her feet. She got a little too rockity and almost fell backwards had it not been that she put her left foot behind her to keep her from falling. Sakura noticed then that they owned swings; and Sakura loved to swing. Her face lit up, and she ran over to them. Of course you can just imagine what Sasuke's face looked like when she did that. He had one of those 'what the crap is wrong with you' looks on his face. _

_He watched her run down to the swings and climb up on one. He also watched as she tried her best to get the swing to actually move, but with no prevail. In the next moment he was walking down towards her, which Sakura didn't notice because she was concentrating too much on trying to get the swing to move. Sasuke placed himself behind her and started to push. Sakura was frightened at first when the swing started to move without her doing a thing. She looked behind and noticed then that Sasuke was the one making the swing move. It soon got too high for him though, and when he tried to push her one last time he reached so far up and so far back that it made him fall backwards. Sakura heard the thump so when she was coming back down, she slid her body off the swing, but still holding onto the sides, and brought her swinging to a stop. She ran behind the swing and stopped in front of Sasuke._

"_Need help?" she asked extending her hand out to him._

_He sat for a little bit, looking back and forth from her hand to her face. He finally took her hand, and as she was trying to help him up the exact opposite happened. There was still morning dew on the ground, so when Sakura was trying to pull Sasuke up her feet slid out from underneath her and she fell also. All was silent for a moment before Sakura started to laugh, and Sasuke soon started to laugh also._

_--click—_

This was the picture that Sakura was currently looking at.

_Their mother's were watching them from inside the house. They had just taken a few pictures of the current scene._

"_I'm telling you Ukiah your little girl has got some affect on my Sasuke. He practically near never laughs. In fact, this is probably the first time he's laughed since he turned one."_

_Ukiah smiled at her friend's comment. She lifted up her camera again and took a picture of Sasuke helping Sakura up off the ground._

"_Well Mikoto, with the news you're giving me now, I'm not going to be the least surprised when they go off and get married."_

_They both started to laugh, for it was in a mother's instinct to know when their little child had found just person for them to marry; no matter at what age they had found each other._

Sakura got up from her desk and walked down stairs. Her mother was with her father at the moment. For he and Fugaku, Sasuke's dad, needed more help with their business trip. This probably meant that Mikoto was away too. Sakura decided to make herself some macaroni and cheese for supper. As she was waiting for the noodles to soften she walked around her living room. She didn't know why but she had this sudden urge to go look at the picture books that they owned. Each had a title on the binding that faced outward. There was one in particular that caught her eye.

It was titled _"Sasuke and Sakura"_. She had never noticed this book here before. She pulled it out and skimmed threw pictures and pictures of her and Sasuke growing up together. She brought the book with her to the kitchen and started to look through it. It had older pictures of when her and Sasuke were younger.

One of the pictures was of their first day of kindergarten. Mikoto and Ukiah had made sure that they were in the same school and class. Sasuke and Sakura were walking into the building with Sakura's arm hooked around Sasuke's and holding tightly onto him.

"I didn't know mom took these pictures. I wonder how long she's been doing this."

The next picture she saw was when she and Sasuke were in second grade. They were outside for recess, but on this particular day the third graders had joined in. One of the boys had been bullying Sakura. Sasuke had stepped in between the two, Sakura clutching at the back of Sasuke's shirt as he talked off the third grader. Sasuke had a serious look on his face and he was obviously yelling at the third grader.

"Why was my own mother stalking me? And why, when these kinds of situations occurred, didn't she step in, instead of taking pictures of Sasuke doing it."

Sakura stared at the picture intently. She flipped through other pages, having all kinds of recollections of the moments her and Sasuke had spent together.

On the last few pages were pictures of events that had happened this year. First was the annual before the school year sleepover, where Sasuke and Sakura had awakened in each other's arms.

"So Mikoto is in on this also?" Sakura asked herself.

The second was when Sasuke, Sakura, and all of the rest of their friends had gone on the little camping trip at Sasuke's cabin. The picture was taken on the day when Sasuke and Sakura spent the whole day walking together, minus the break they took when it started to rain. The picture was of Sasuke and Sakura kissing in the rain. Sakura blushed at the picture, and then moved onto the next.

Of course, as you can imagine, the next was not better. It had been taken on the day that she and Sasuke had been helping each other with their chemistry homework. Sakura remembered that day so clearly:

_Sasuke went over to Sakura and explained to her that she had been comparing the two wrong ingredients._

"_Thanks Sasuke." she said, then lifting up her head towards his._

_They noticed how close they were, but didn't move. Their eyes seemed to drag them both in closer to each other and soon they felt the other's forehead against their own. They finished off the space by locking their lips together._

_Sakura dropped her pencil from her hand and brought it up to the back of Sasuke's head. Sasuke wrapped his arms around her waist. Pretty soon he brought one up to her hair and started messing with it. They soon fell down on the ground both on their sides. They took occasional breaks to get air. Whenever their eyes met, they started kissing again like it was their first time. Sasuke would move his hand up and down Sakura's back, messaging her in a kind of a way. Sakura would twist her finger around Sasuke's hair, then untwist it, but then twist it again. They stopped before it got to far. Then just laid there staring into each other's eyes again. Both were blushing. Sakura still had her hands tangled in Sasuke's hair and Sasuke still held Sakura close to him. Realization hit them. They quickly sat up and broke their gaze._

Sakura raised her hands to her cheeks; they felt like they were burning up. She looked over at the stove and noticed a lot of steam rising from the pot. She ran over and put the noodles off the stove. After straining the noodles of all water, she added four tablespoons of butter, ¼ cup of milk. She then stirred all that together. When it looked like it was well stirred she added the packet of cheese powder that had been supplied. She stirred in all the ingredients so that they were all equally, or mostly equally, distributed among the noodles.

She poured some of the macaroni into a separate bowl and brought it over to the table where she had left the photo album sitting.

The next picture was after Sasuke had asked her to the Valentine's Day Dance. In the picture Sasuke and Sakura were both blushing madly. Sasuke was looking down at his feet, and Sakura was just looking at anything but him while biting her lip.

Sakura kind of chuckled at the scene. She could hardly believe how many wonderful memories her and Sasuke had made together; even the awkward ones. Sakura put her two hands on her forehead and leaned over the picture book. Her shoulders started to shake and drops of tears landed on the pictures of her and Sasuke.

...

"Bye Sasuke! Ah!! I'm going to miss my plane! There's leftover meat loaf in the fridge if you get hungry!" Mikoto called before she left the house to join her husband on the business trip.

A car with a waiting Ukiah was sitting in the Uchiha's drive way and Mikoto jumped into it.

"Yuck, meat loaf. Leftover too." Sasuke said.

Sasuke started to roam around the house not knowing what to do with himself. He walked over to the couch and turned on the TV. After going through all of the channels that they had he turned it off, not finding anything that suited is liking. He sat on the couch for awhile. Then he decided, 'maybe I'll read a book, or something.' He walked over to the shelf and skimmed the different books that they had. One in particular attracted his eye though. The title was _"Sasuke and Sakura."_

"What is up with this?"

Sasuke removed the book from its place and was about to open up the first page when the door bell rang. He put the book back and went to answer the door.

When he opened it he was surprised to see who was standing there. It was Sakura. Her eyes were red and puffy as if she had been crying, but why?

"Sakura?"

Sakura had her head down and refused to look up. Sasuke put on hand on her right shoulder, and used his other hand to lift up her head. Yet, she averted her eyes away from his.

"Sakura." he said more sternly.

This made Sakura look into his eyes. She took a big gasp of air then threw herself at Sasuke wrapping her arms around his waist tightly and crying into his shirt. Sasuke was shocked at first by this action, and didn't get why she was crying, but nonetheless he would comfort her; that was his job after all. He wrapped his arms around her and tightly brought her closer to him. He turned their bodies so that he could close the door for some privacy. After doing so he continually rocked her back and forth. Her crying would strengthen, but then she'd be calmer again. After about fifteen minutes, not nearly long enough for him, she seemed to have stopped crying completely, but she didn't want to let go of him, and he didn't want to let go of her. Sakura clung herself closer to Sasuke's body, suddenly feeling a small chill, but feeling warmer, and safer, as she clung onto Sasuke more and digging her face into his shirt so that she can smell his cologne.

"I'm sorry," Sakura mumbled into Sasuke's shirt.

Sasuke was confused by this comment. He pulled Sakura away from him, much to his disliking. She didn't look up at him.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

Sasuke grabbed her shoulders firmly.

"Sorry about what Sakura?" he asked.

"I didn't mean to run off like that. I was scared. My head was spinning. I didn't know _what_ to think or say." she said, tears starting to stream down her face again.

'_I didn't mean to do this to her.'_

"I'm sorry, I was just so confused. But now-" Sakura had continued.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke intently. A huge blush appeared on Sakura's face. She stood up on the tips of her toes and put her lips on Sasuke's. He moved his hands down to her waist and she wrapped her hands around his neck. He pulled her closer to him. He moved his hands up and down her back and her hands went from around his neck to tightening her grip on chunks of his shirt and loosening it again, then moving her hands back up to his neck. They both broke off the kiss. Sakura went back to her original height and looked up at Sasuke.

"Sasuke, I love you too." she said.

Sasuke gave her a smirk.

"Yeah, I realized that when you lunged at me." he joked.

Sakura bit her lip and looked down. Sasuke lifted up Sakura's head and waited for her to make eye contact with him. Once she did, he leaned in for a kiss, but this was a shorter one. Afterwards, he held her in his arms and started to rock her back and forth again.

Sasuke took a glance outside and noticed how dark it was getting. He should probably get Sakura home.

"Come on, I'll walk you home," he said.

Sakura smiled and nodded.

Sasuke grabbed Sakura's hand opened the door, locking it as they left. They walked over to Sakura's house.

After getting her safely to the door, and saw her unlock it, Sasuke gave her a light kiss on the forehead and started to leave.

"Sasuke, do…" Sakura started.

Sasuke stopped and turned around.

"Do you think you could stay here tonight? I don't want to be alone." Sakura finished.

Sasuke gave her a smirk and began to walk back towards her house. When he entered Sakura closed and locked the door. Awkward silence.

"So, um, you had dinner right?" Sakura asked.

"No. My mom left leftover meat loaf." he said.

Sakura made an 'ew' face. She also started to laugh.

"It's not really that funny," he said. "I'm starving."

Sakura suppressed her giggles and headed into the kitchen with Sasuke following. Sakura pulled down another bowl and poured the rest of the mac & cheese into it.

"Here ya go," she said.

They both walked over to the table and ate their macaroni. When they were done, Sakura suggested a movie.

"How about _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_?" Sakura suggested.

Sasuke laughed, for he and Sakura had seen it once before and had found it hilarious, so he agreed.

Sakura popped in the movie, and her and Sasuke sat themselves next to each other on the couch, Sasuke's arm around Sakura, and Sakura's head leaning on Sasuke's shoulder. They almost finished the movie before both of them had fallen asleep.

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The next morning the two were lying down on the couch. Sakura was on the edge and Sasuke was behind her. Sasuke's left arm was draped over her, his right hand was underneath her head, and their bodies left little vacant area in between.

Sasuke woke up before Sakura and decided to go over to his house and get a change of clothes

**While getting his clothes:**

Sasuke was rushing so that Sakura wouldn't wake up and find him gone, so as he was walking around his house trying to get his shirt on he tripped over something lying on the floor. After getting up and correctly putting his shirt on, Sasuke picked it up.

_Sasuke and Sakura_

"What the frick is this?" he mumbled.

He opened it up saw the pictures that made up Sakura's and his relationship throughout their lives.

Their first meeting, him mouthing off third graders, the sleepover at the beginning of the year, the camping trip, and the chemistry help session.

"Now I know what _my_ mom does in her spare time."

Sasuke flipped through every single picture and memory that the book held. Seeing the past made him realize what he hoped for in the future.

**6 Years Later**

They've been married for about 1 year now. They decided it would be best if they wait until after college to get married and start their life as Mr. and Mrs.

She can still recall the day that he proposed to her.

They were in the back yard of his house and he was swinging her on the swing that caused their friendship. He stopped her after awhile. She asked him why. He said because.

Sasuke rounded the swing to get in front of her, and got down on one knee. His proposal went a little like this:

"_Sakura, this is where it all started for our friendship. Now, I want this to be the place where we start our lives together, forever. Will you marry me?"_

She said yes of course.

They both said the"_I do's" _at the alter, and went on the traditional honeymoon.

Now, they live on the same street as when they grew up. Across from their house are their parents' houses. They no longer preoccupy themselves with school and homework. They have new duties now. They have a little girl they need to raise; turquoise eyes, and purple hair. And, they too, have already begun the stalking.

_--click—_

**A:N/ So I hope you liked how I ended this. It's weird having this be done. Review please, if you can that is. Thanks to everyone who has read this story the whole way through, and has put up with my constant procrastination. I know it gets annoying, and I'm sorry. **

** Maybe I'll be seeing your reviews in some of my other stories. Bye!**

Note From Beta - I've had a lot of fun editing this story for Maximum Ridegirl. It's the first story I've ever edited and I'd like to thank her for this great opportunity of doing so to an outstanding story. I also feel very special that I'm the first one to read the chapters, well other than Maximum Ridegirl. Thank you for taking some time off your hands and reading this story, we both greatly appreciate it. Well, Maximum Ridegirl appreciates it even more than me, I mean she IS the one who wrote this story, I just edited it, but had a lot of fun in doing so. She doesn't even know that I left a little message, hope she doesn't mind. Hehehe

Yours Truly,

SasukeGirl567


	22. Here You Go

**Here You Go**

**So here's that last chapter I promised you, finally.**

**It's been fun writing this story, for who knows how long, and I really appreciate all the reviews people have given to it. I am so proud of this story, but I wouldn't be without all you loyal reviewers out there. Thank you to everyone!!**

**I'm already missing this story. I'm glad that I finished and all, but it's sad at the same time. I hope you guys know what I mean by that. Anyways, thanks, and I hope to see people's usernames from this story in my stories yet to come.**

**THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!**

**--Maximum Ridegirl--**


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